A Clean Break
by Shanhime
Summary: Cloud's always had it rough. Can he finally make the best out of a bad situation and finally find his happy ending? SephirothXCloud. Eventually Yaoi. Darkfic. Chapter 17 Now Up. A/U
1. Home

Hi again, sorry about the lack of postage for such a long time. I'm back with a quite dark story. This chapter is short but they'll get longer. Enjoy.

**Chapter One**

**Home**

Even from the beginning Cloud had never been in Shiva's best graces. Cloud had never had a happy childhood. Since birth Cloud could barely remember his father as more than a drunken slob who would systematically beat him whenever he couldn't cope with situations. His mother, whom Cloud took after physically, had left after he was born, leaving a jealous, incapable drunkard to look after him.

The blond spend most of his childhood alone, entertaining himself, he often found himself climbing Nibelhiem Mountain wandering around playing with mako and occasionally coming across small monsters he would try to tame. This was a few years before Shinra came along and planted a small mako reactor in the midst of the mountain range.

Shinra specifically asked- no, demanded!- that the children of the village be kept away from the reactor, and if possible, away from the mountains. Often the children still made their way up there but were never caught or found out. Cloud's father, the only person who didn't consciously adhere to the rules of the Shinra Corporation, mysteriously disappeared in the night. Cloud was alone.

The morning came and Cloud, once again desperate for food, forced himself home.

"Dad!" he shouted nervously into the house hoping, for once, he would not be drunk, "Dad do we have anything to eat?"

His trip to the fridge was not intercepted so Cloud assumed his father was lying unconscious in one of the room. Common sense told him to get something to eat before he attempted to find and resuscitate him.

The pickings in the fridge were frightfully bare but he persevered, finding enough to sustain him until his father could muster up another trip to the store.

"DAAAAD?" Cloud shouted, his voice ringing through the house. But there was no audible answer. The blonde checked every room and knew immediately. He had run off.

Cloud screamed in fury and threw himself at the table, upending it and knocking the rubbish from it. That bastard, he shouted inside his head, that stupid fucking bastard! He hated his father, always had, but now the hate surged inside him and with that massing hatred came this anger. With the anger, he set about destroying everything he could see in the house, smashing bottles, throwing chairs and tables, upending buckets and bins and even pushing over the fridge.

He needed to get out of the house and the first place he headed for was Mount Nibelhiem. It was where he usually went; up in the mountains, hiding in the caves, staring at the mako fountain and feeling its wispy tendrils flow around his hand. It was warm but cooling. He took off his shoes and took a step into the mako infused water feeling his worries leave him. It was so relaxing he felt he could just flow with it…and disappear into Gaia with it…melt…and flow…

He was so entranced, so engrossed in the beauty of the planet he barely noticed the other beings enter the cave.

"Hey look, it's Cloud!" jeered one of the village kids.

"Hah! Look, he hasn't even brushed his hair, what a freak!"

"Yeah and look at his clothes!"

Cloud didn't need this right now, he was thinking about what he was going to do. He was too young to get a proper job, and he could never own a house. The teenagers that swarmed around him however, didn't care about that, they were too busy mocking him, and the more he didn't notice, the angrier they were becoming.

He finally noticed when one of the braver ones, older than the others, reached out and shoved him, he tripped forward but caught his feet. The others jeered and helped along.

"Yeah you show him Daniel!"

"Show this little fucker what we think of people like him."

"Just a waste of space, like your father!"  
"Yeah, imagine being related to the town drunk!" one of the other guffawed and spat on him. Cloud wiped the offending liquid from his eye earning a kick and a few punches. He fell to the floor as one well aimed punch hit just below his rib cage. He gasped for breath, the only sound that had fallen from his lips since the encounter. The bullying had gone on for years and he'd learned from experience that shouting out didn't help. Whether if was his father beating him up and abusing him for looking like his mother, or the bullies laughing at him because of his father, or his father beating him for letting the bullies beat him speaking out did nothing, so he remained silent.

Cloud stopped going to school when he was twelve. No-one forced him to go and after the head teacher commented on his lack of proper uniform he knew things would get worse. They did, the pupils began to call him scruffy and mock him for his lack of decent or even clean clothing. So he stopped going and no-one came after him.

His vision faded after the punch hit him. Scrunched up into a protective ball, clutching his stomach and head, the only other punches and kicks hit his back. He was barely aware of another faint set of voices before passing out.

"Hey, come on, leave him now."

"HAHA! Tifa likes Cloud!"

"No! No!" The black haired girl who remained hidden from view just at the entrance to the cave insisted trying to be embarrassed at their claims, "No! I mean, you keep doing that you'll kill him! Do you really want to get into trouble over him! Come on Daniel, call your blood-thirsty hounds off."

Daniel laughed loudly,

"Alright guys, come on, that shit for brains isn't going anywhere."

"Hey! The retard left his shoes over here! Let's take them!" There was more laughter.

"Look at the state of them! I doubt he'll mind if we just bin them for him!"

And they left him there, shoeless, choking for breath and unconscious, and they laughed and jostled each other on their way back home.


	2. Bathing

I wrote this while listening to Placebo's version of "Running up that hill" so I cried a little whilst writing this (how sad is that *embarrassed face*) but I hope you find this chapter cute! Please Review 3

**Chapter Two**

**Bathing**

Cloud awoke exactly where he had landed; in a heap, in a puddle of mako. He had no idea where he was, and his mind was blank and nauseous. The green fluid oozing from the life stream had wiped his mind a little. Yes, he could remember what had just happened but it felt as though the events were years past. It didn't hurt to think of them, another reason Cloud loved to play with the mako streams.

Prolonged exposure to mako was dangerous, everyone in the village, including Cloud, knew that and he pulled himself out of the pool as quickly as he could, the dusty fluid floating over him, pulled back towards the source in cohesion. It felt nice though; soothing and numbing.

He looked around giddily for his shoes. Where did they go?

After spending ten minutes looking for his shoes, the fifteen year old realised they were gone. The group of kids must have taken them; they didn't look fit for wearing anyway. They gave him blisters which, luckily, had been healed away.

He didn't want to go back down to the village.

But he couldn't stay there.

He paced. The life-stream could sustain him. He knew stories of people who had lived off the land but at the price of their consciousness. The blond risked losing his personality; he would forget his memories within a week of it. Was it worth it?

Yes. He decided. He would forget about his deserting mother, his abusive father, the wicked children who tormented him and lose himself to the collective, lose his individuality. But wasn't that cowardice?

The stones of the mountainside would soon dig into his feet without shoes but the mako could morph him if he bathed in it enough. It would change them into monstrous claws or paws that would better suit him for survival in the area. The life stream knew. It was made of living consciousness and it would help him.

And yet, as he stood on the edge, deciding whether or not to jump back in; tears rolled down his face. For all the hurt and sadness he knew, he still had tears to cry.

He grasped his top lip between his front teeth and bit down, trying to stop them but they wouldn't stop, they kept coming.

He still loved his Father. He hated him! But he still loved him.

And the mother he never knew, the one he supposedly was just like. He loved her too. He had no memories of her, and no memories of _him_ worth remembering. But he had clothed him, albeit half heartedly. And he had fed him; barely, but he did.

How hurt must he have been though? Losing Cloud's mother but still having him there to remind him of what he once had, preventing him from forgetting.

He wasn't crying because of self pity but because he was sorry for his father. And his father had taken enough and left before Cloud could even say sorry. He took a step back from the mako, the tears flowing freely now, and heard a slight nervous cough from behind him.

The blond jumped, startled, and spun round, his matted hair all but covering his tear streaked murky face. It was Tifa.

"Hey!" she said softly, still keeping her distance and half obscured by a large rock. She was afraid the boy might do something weird, like attack her or something similar. He was so quiet that no-one could tell what he might be thinking.

"Are you okay? Um…"

Cloud stared at her in silence. What was she doing? Was she going to attack him too? He backed up towards the mako pool again. Was the planet helping him making a choice?

"What do you want?" he said in his pre-pubescent voice, his voice was louder than he'd intended and it broke the awkward silence for a few seconds. Tifa flinched.

"I…I'm sorry, I went down with everyone and we…Shinra took your father…it's all over the village, we- my family…mum and dad wondered if you wanted to come home with us? I mean…you didn't really…I mean…whatever, if you want to stay here its okay but…you're welcome to-"

Cloud continued to watch Tifa. She tried not to stare at his matted hair, his ragged clothes, his shoeless feet and his skin green tinged with mako.

"You have pretty hair." Cloud said suddenly. Tifa cringed, this was too awkward for words but she felt so guilty for what her friends had done. She took a step forward, Cloud, startled, took one back and tripped, landing in the pool. Tifa laughed but not cruelly and the blond tried to smile back his bright blue eyes fit to burst with more tears. They pierced out through the filth on his face. When the black haired girl reached out a hand to pull him up he broke into tears again and took it.

"Thank you."

She shook her head.  
"Come on," she said, taking off her backpack. "I have your shoes in my bag, they'll do until you get down there…I…think the boys trashed them up pretty bad though…" she took them out and held them out. Cloud shook his head and took them to put them on.

"No…they were like that already."

"Oh...I…I'm sorry."

"It's okay."

The conversation was strained. Tifa didn't really speak to Cloud much and never stood up for him as long as he knew but Tifa had never understood Cloud's situation. She silently helped him down the mountain ranges for although he didn't need the strength; he needed her hand on his arm for confidence.

As the two of them walked into the streets people stared from around them and from the windows, Tifa felt uncomfortable but persisted, she didn't want to care what they thought. She was doing a good deed; she didn't need to feel guilty.

When she pulled him into her house past the children jeering and mocking outside, he was grateful for the layers of muck on his face, hiding the crimson of embarrassment.

Her parents were worse.

"Aww look at him, he's in a far worse state than I though Miriam," said her father looking down at Cloud with such pity. "Look at the state of his clothes."

"I know…the poor dear, Tifa, take him upstairs and show him how the bath works."

Tifa put her hands on her thirteen year old hips.

"Muuuum! DAAAD! Don't say that! He's not stupid; of course he knows how the bath works!" She grabbed the boys arm.

"Come on, the bath's upstairs, I'll show you which room." She muttered to him, annoyed by her parent's words. How insensitive could you be???

"It's this one here!" Tifa said pushing open the bathroom door. "I'm sure you know what to do, there's towel and so on, I –"

Cloud stared blankly at her, biting his lip again. Tifa cringed and fought the urge to call for her dad. She gulped and guided him in.

"Okay, I'm only showing you once alright?" she closed and locked the door. "See, you turn on the taps – like this – and this, this is the plug, you put that in here and the water collects you get it?"

Cloud nodded and felt like an idiot.

"This is the hot tap and this is the cold, blue and red, blue for more cold, and red for more hot…this-" Tifa held up the bar of soap "this is soap, you get the water and the soap and rub it together so make bubbles and you rub it on your skin till it goes clean." She demonstrated on her arm, and scooped on some water to rinse. "Like that, okay?"

Cloud nodded dumbly.

"You…have to take your clothes off and get in too but…that can wait till I get out okay?"

"Um..." Cloud spoke out.

"Yes?"

"Never mind," Cloud shook his head.

"Okay then…uh…my older brother might have some clothes left from when he was here! He joined Shinra army though, I'll go see if there's some here," she unlocked the door and walked out. "Please…don't lock the door, just in case."

Cloud shut the door behind her and took off his clothes, leaving them sprawled over the floor and tried to climb into the bathtub. It was cold so he turned the hot tap on more but then it turned too hot so he turned the cold tap on and it became too cold again so he switched them both off. He didn't like this sitting in water, he preferred sitting in mako; it was so much more refreshing. He pushed against the top of the bath with his feet and slid up and down the water sloshing around him. It made him smile.

"Also, about the towel, I forgot to-" Tifa walked in opening the door and froze. Cloud froze too and covered himself in fright.

"Uh…I'm sorry, I…found some clothes they uh…" she stared, blushing red, at everywhere in the bathroom but at Cloud. "They might fight but…um…I'm sorry."

"Its okay, Tifa…can…how do I wash my hair?"

The helpless look that Cloud gave her made her want to pat him on the head like a docile little puppy. He was older but so much more like a child. She nodded before closing and locking the door, hoping her parents wouldn't find out about or look too much into this.

She took a medium sized glass container down from a shelf and half filled in with hot water, then, with cold water and placed it on the side of the bathtub. She then took a small bottle of shampoo and nearly emptied it as she squeezed it over Cloud's hair. He shivered at the cold gunge.

"This is shampoo, it's like soap but for your hair," she said rubbing it into his scalp, his head shook with the force as she tried to get rid of the tugs and the dirt and all the other things accumulated in the dirty blond mess.

Cloud squealed as her nails pierced his scalp and pulled at his hair but if it had to be done…

"There!" She said pleased as she scooped his spikes into one big spike pointing upwards.

"That's it?"

"Uh…no…close your eyes and hold your breath."

"Why?"

He wasn't quick enough and when Tifa poured the contents of the container over him he choked on the water and clung to the sides of the bath in fright.

"WHAT WAS THAT FOR?" he snapped at her, causing her to step back.

"I…was rinsing your hair! To get the shampoo off! I swear!"

She looked down at the water in the bath. It had turned a muddy brown, trying to distract him she pointed at it.

"Look! That was the dirt on you! It's changed the colour of the water and now you're all clean, you just need to use the soap then you'll be pretty as anything."

"I'll be…pretty?" Cloud's eyes widened. He would be pretty? He'd never been pretty before…

Tifa nodded.

"Here, I'll do your back."

She ran clean water into the bath, while Cloud took out and replaced the plug. Then she used the soap up and down Cloud's back, peeling off all the mud and dried dirt before scooping more water over him. Then she washed his shoulders and delicately washed his face. She turned her back while he washed himself and the two of them talked about mundane things.

Tifa would never ask about his father, she now realised how painful it must have been for him so they talked about the mako and the clothes she had fetched him and she explained to him about the rules of living there. How he would have chores and couldn't stay out all night and what a bedtime was.

When he finished she held out the towel.

"You stand up – No! NO! Not right now! You stand up and unfurl the towel – like this- then you wrap it around you and step out of the bathtub. Then you rub yourself with the towel and dry yourself, okay? I'll go outside but I'll be just outside the door if you need me, you know how to put the clothes on yeah?"

"Yes, I understand." He said taking the towel. "Thank you Tifa…"

"It's okay," she said rubbing her arm and smiling before walking outside. "Please though…don't lock the door. I won't come in unless you ask."

When the door clicked shut he stood up, the water falling from him back into the bath. He still preferred mako. Mako didn't need to be dried off but this water didn't make him dizzy and light headed.

And he felt so nice! He didn't know how to describe this wondrous feeling! He felt clean!

And when he climbed into those new clean clothes he wanted to dance.

He stepped out of the bathroom in size too big trousers and shirt but he was grinning.

"Look Tifa, I did it myself."

She smiled at him and giggled.

"You look great Cloud, and your hair has dried…upwards!"

He looked in the mirror on the landing. His brown-yellow hair was a golden yellow. His dry flaky face was milky white and soft with a few brown freckles. His skin was no longer tinged with a green and his eyes held a beautiful blue sparkle. Tifa ran her fingers through his smooth clean hair and laughed. Cloud laughed too. He laughed and laughed and laughed.


	3. Domestication

Yay! Thank you for the reviews! They keep me writing and inspired. Keep them coming and I'll keep the chapters coming lol.

**Chapter Three**

**Domestication**

The next few days saw even more change for Cloud. He still avoided the village kids because he felt they would still call him a freak. He was right to think that but because of his absence, they took it out on Tifa; especially at school. While the Lockharts tried to persuade Cloud to return to school Tifa was trying to find reasons to follow Cloud's footsteps and skip it. It was a difficult situation that even the teachers were starting to struggle with. Given the small stature of the school building there would be no avoiding the bullies if they did go and, relenting a little, Tifa's parents decided that she could stay off for one week only to aid Cloud's adaptation to his new situation. And yet Tifa didn't tell Cloud about the bullying, she didn't want him to feel like it was his fault.

Tifa was confused at the sudden change of heart, but she wasn't going to question this glorious week of free scuff.

However there was one drawback.

Tifa was to help Cloud clean his room. Despite his lack of possessions, the boy had managed to utterly destroy the room he was staying in and Tifa cringed when she walked into the room. It was a bombsite.

"Cloud! What the hell?"

Cloud looked up from a heap of clothes amassed on the floor of his bedroom; he was pretending to be a hedgehog.

"How did you do this? This isn't even your stuff! It's my brothers!" she whined. She didn't want to have to tidy up her brother's room. She didn't even want to tidy her own room.

"I like it like this, it's comfier with padding."

"Padding? Why does the floor need padding?"

"So I can sleep better…" Cloud looked guilty. He felt bad now, Tifa must've been sleeping without clothes and here he was, taking advantage of their hospitality.

"Wait…you slept on the floor?"

"Yeah?" Cloud questioned looking at her as though she was crazy. Where else was he supposed to sleep?

"Um….Cloud, you've been here about what…four days now? You see this? It's a bed! You're supposed to sleep on that, that's what it's for."

Cloud looked at the huge, strange, wooden ornament sitting in the corner of the room. He'd always thought it was there for decoration. Some people liked decoration and he'd assumed this was supposed to make the room smaller. He stood up and walked over to it, tripping over the pile of new papers and left over porn magazines (Tifa's brothers, not Clouds) in the right hand side of the room. Tifa wrinkled her nose; it both looked and smelled like a hamster cage in that room.

Cloud tentatively knelt onto the bed. It sunk beneath him with a whine and he jumped back.

"I broke it!" he shrieked in fright.

"You didn't break it, you loon!" Tifa rolled her eyes and sniggered. She trekked through the room and shoved him onto the bed, he fell over and face-planted the pillow. It creaked loudly beneath him and he rolled over and sat up.

After the initial fright of having been pushed, his eyes lit up.

"T-This is…mine?" he asked in awe. It was comfier than the floor any day, and he wouldn't use up as many clothes trying to keep warm.

"Well, kinda, it's my brother's but you can sleep there, I think Mum and Dad would prefer you sleeping there to sleeping on the floor…also, I have to help you tidy this room."

Cloud gaped in disappointment! He had just made the room exactly how he liked it! It was liveable now! How was supposed to live in a room where he couldn't do anything in it for fear of messing it? He gave himself a mental shake. Don't be ungrateful, he told himself. These people took you in; they could throw you out just as quick. If you don't adhere to their rules it may be even sooner than anticipated. He liked Tifa, he liked Mr and Mrs Lockhart, and he liked being fed on a daily basis.

"Okay," Cloud said quickly, not wanting to upset her. "Help me?"

Tifa nodded.

"But you're moving the porno mags!"

"What's a porno mag?"

"Nothing…absolutely nothing!"

And yet, Cloud must've been doing something right, because days turned into weeks, weeks into months and still the Lockharts did not throw him out. They actually wanted him to stay with them! Tifa spent the first week teaching the boy how to tidy his and the other rooms of the house which Cloud soon started doing automatically. This earned praises from Tifa's parents which irritated Tifa a little. She didn't like being told that Cloud was the better child but she dealt with it, knowing that the little unwanted boy who nobody liked was beginning to like himself, and of course, the own child wasn't supposed to be the good child.

Tifa taught him all the basics, how to cook, how to clean, how to make himself look presentable, how to live in general.

One thing she couldn't teach him was how to tame that mess of hair glued to his head, mostly because she couldn't do it herself. She tried hairdryers, wax, hairspray, straighteners, curling tongs, gel, more wax, different shampoos, conditioners, dry shampoos, more gel, crèmes, mousse, gravity materia, chip pan grease, clips, bobbles, scrunchies, hair bands, Alice bands, Kirby grips, anti-frizz serum, nothing, nada, zero.

"You'll just have to deal with it." She said matter-of-factly elbow deep in hair product.

Cloud didn't like his hair flying out at all angles. When it was matted and thick with dirt, mud and mako, it lay flat at his ears and it wasn't worth teasing as much. Now his hair irritated him to the extent he was going to cut it off. And cut it off he did.

Tifa had returned to school, Mr Lockhart to work, and Mrs Lockhart was busy in the garden. Cloud had found a pair of hedge shears in the utility room and was staring at them in hesitation. Flat hair…or spiky mess?

Flat hair.

Cloud pulled a spike and cut. Snip. That didn't hurt, that was a good sign right? He pulled out another and snipped it again. He could barely contain his excitement; he was going to have flat hair and wouldn't need to worry about being made fun of again. He was clean now; people didn't make fun of that anymore. His clothes were too big but not ripped, that wasn't worth mocking. His hair would be flat; no longer like a chocobo after a big race.

It was like Tifa had said! He would look pretty.

Snip. Snip. Snip. The small pile of hair lying on the floor grew and grew until Cloud could find no more spikes to shear. He swept up the pile of hair and ran his fingers across his itchy head removing any strays.

Proud of his work he took a look in the mirror. It wasn't the best of haircuts but it would do, he decided, putting the shears away before anyone could realise he had them. They were going to notice anyway, but Cloud hadn't realised that yet.

Dinnertime came and Cloud wandered down to eat.

Mr Lockhart stared. Mrs Lockhart stared. Tifa stared. There was a lot of staring. Cloud stared back.

"Cloud, deary…what happened to your hair sweetheart?" Mrs Lockhart asked gently not wanting to upset Cloud in case it had been intentional.

"I cut it; I wanted it to look normal." Cloud said ecstatic. He was so proud of himself.

The two adults shared a furtive look. Tifa stared at the table and continued to slowly chew her food, choosing not to comment. The olds would deal with this one, she would eat her dinner.

Mr Lockhart stood up and guided Cloud into the hall and sat down on the stairs with him.

"Cloud, are you happy here?"

He nodded,

"Yes Mr Lockhart, you've been so kind."

"Right, is there any particular reason you cut your hair?"

"I wanted flat hair." He said simply, "and cutting it shorter means less hair to fly upwards."

"Fantastic job," Mr Lockhart lied but he wasn't worried anymore, "Listen, any time you want a haircut, just ask Miriam, she'll gladly do it okay? But if you ask nicely I'm sure she'll finish it later, we'll make the best of this situation and I suppose, just this once, you can have your dinner in your room, no storing it mind."

Cloud nodded, stray loose hairs flying around the hallway.

After they had eaten, Miriam Lockhart took a bowl and a tablecloth and pushed down the mess of hair with the bowl.

Tifa watched from the kitchen shelves, swinging her legs back and forth, thoroughly entertained.

"Mrs Lockhart, will this hurt?"

"No Cloud, but it will take a few months for it to grow back."

By the time she was done cutting his hair, Cloud wanted his spikes back.

His hair was flat now; a cropped bowl cut that flew upwards the moment the bowl was removed.

Tifa avoided him the rest of the night. She wasn't going to tell him how bad he looked.

By the time the hair grew back Cloud had become a proper, albeit antisocial, member of the Lockhart family. He still couldn't be persuaded to attend schooling but Tifa managed to teach him the basics which he stubbornly resisted.

He began to call Mr and Mrs Lockhart mum and dad even, and looked forward to the times when Tifa came home from school so he would have someone to talk to and something to talk about. Cloud felt wanted, loved, appreciated. He had a home now.

That's what made it harder for him when the bad things started to happen again.


	4. Kidnapping

A/N: Hi again guys. Wow…7 reviews already…, my views keep going up *no I'm not sitting watching the stats go up* (lies). Anyway, Enjoy and review please. It keeps me happy.

**Chapter Four**

**Kidnapping**

It happened on a Sunday evening. Tifa had packed her bag for school the following morning and the older Lockharts were watching the television. The small blonde teenager was in "his" room under his bed.

He needed some personal space. As much as he was starting to love the Lockharts like he'd known them all his life, he wasn't the most social of creatures and half dosing under the bed was like a sanctuary to him.

Cloud watched as a thin pair of knees attached to slim calves and off white scuffed trainers appeared in his line of vision.

"Hey Cloud," the legs said muffled but loudly, "Wheel of Fortune is on! Don't you want to come down and watch it with us? Dad's set up the DVD player, so we're gonna watch a film after…you coming down? Mum made some toffee popcorn." Tifa was used to finding Cloud under the bed and had assumed it was just his way of relaxing, Tifa's way was stealing her mum's make up when she thought Daddy wasn't around maybe this was what guys did.

Cloud shook his head.

"I'll be down for the movie, just give me a few minutes." He said pensively so Tifa left him, shutting the door with a click.

Cloud could think now. And the thoughts flowed freely as he considered his situation. Barely three months had passed since Cloud was a struggling waif with no real home, no-one to look after him and no idea about what life was all about. Until Tifa had come along Cloud had felt his only escape would be to sink into the life stream until unconsciousness came and now, he loved his life. The Lockharts had done so many things for him that even his father never did or would. He still missed his father and, looking back through rose tinted glasses, he was forgetting some of the worst things about his alcoholic father. He had never felt so appreciated, even if he did have to keep his room tidy, it was worth it for the meals and the occasional trips to the shop. Sometimes he even received money from Tifa's parents for some strange sickly sweet but delicious extra food which Tifa said was called candy. Cloud's favourite "candy" was chocolate. It wasn't too sweet, was slightly bitter and left his mouth thick with residue. It was an interesting sensation that was only seconded by strawberry ice cream half melted and dripping down a cone; especially the sorbets. He was thinking about the candies and how he could get some when the peacefulness of the quiet village became strained. Cloud was puzzled; he couldn't hear the birds twittering. Then the silence disappeared altogether.

It was quiet. It was peaceful.

And then, all of a sudden, it wasn't.

He heard a very loud vehicle pulled up to the edge of the Nibelhiem gates so, scrambling to his knees, he pulled himself out from under the bed and up the window. It wasn't very often someone from out of the village came to visit, and usually it was only someone from the next town over; Rocket Town and they came by chocobo. So when the realisation that someone with a van or car had arrived, everyone in the village was going to be paying attention. When he looked around the square Cloud noted several other faces peering out from behind the curtains of the house across from the one he was in. Face even peered out from the windows of the general store and the inn. Outside he could see several soldiers climb out of the van and walk into the village. He watched curiously as they approached the house and he winced at the screech of a megaphone.

"This is Shinra, Adrian Lockhart, Miriam Lockhart, and Tifa Lockhart. You are under strict violation of Shinra's code of conduct over rule #1300299774; you have five seconds to leave the house with your hands up. Comply with the following rules or the consequences will be severe."

Cloud's eyes widened. It was Shinra! The bastards who took his father and now they were back for his new family! He'd be damned before he let that happen. Without Shinra his father would still be here!

While the Lockharts huddled into themselves in the front room Cloud thundered down the stairs and straight out of the door.

"Cloud!" exclaimed the Lockharts but none of them were brave enough to follow. Tifa was going to run after but her father promptly grabbed her by the arm.

"Dad! They'll hurt him!"

"Tifa! You are NOT going out there young lady!"

Cloud however, after running straight at one, was screaming profanities at the soldiers.

"YOU BASTARD!" he wailed, kicking and screaming at one of the soldiers. "YOU STOLE MY FATHER, YOU FUCKING BASTARDS! DON'T YOU DARE HURT THEM!"

The soldier looked down at him in disgust and punched him in the gut, silencing the boy who fell to the ground in pain. He kicked the barely breathing boy over before lifting up the megaphone again.

"I'm only going to say this one more time, come out with your hands up and –"

"WAIT! That's the kid that did it! We don't need them any more."

The 2rst Class soldier holding the megaphone nodded.

"Throw the little shit in the back of the van, if he gives any more trouble you know what to do." He said callously walking back towards the van.

Another soldier grabbed Cloud's shoulders and lifted the skinny blond up into his arms. Barely catching his breath the kid reached out and scratched weakly at the soldier who, although unharmed, was taken by surprise and dropped him in the dirt.

"Ah, the brat went for me! He fucking went for me!"

Another two soldiers grabbed the kid and pulled him back. He squirmed again.

"Don't touch me!" he screamed in fright flailing his arms and kicking out yet again, "I want my Daddy back…please…just give me my Dad, I-"

His plea and attempts of resistance were met with a rough hand as it ripped open his shirt and he struggled even more when a large syringe of yellow fluid was shoved into his shoulder. It felt uncomfortable as it drained into the muscle. He screamed in pain when it was twisted sharply and the needle was pulled out again. A light trickle of blood dribbled down his now convulsing shoulders and once the liquid reached his brain he doubled forward in nausea, groaning at the discomfort.

"Don't worry about the tranquiliser, freak, worry about what's going to happen when you get back to Shinra."

Cloud didn't have the strength to reply because when opened his mouth again to speak bloody vomit spewed out of his mouth and splattered against the road, some of it landing on one of the soldier's boots.

"You little shit eating -"

Cloud felt the aforementioned boot ram into his stomach as his eyes closed. Winded and sedated the boy was seized by an uneasy and dizzy unconsciousness. He groaned in pain, the blackness dragging him under. It only took one soldier to drag him by the arm and all but throw him into the back of the van.

"I don't feel jealous of this stupid fucker."

"Serves him right, what kind of freak goes up the mountains anyway?"

"Yeah, shouldn't he be watching TV like other kids?"

"Fuck knows."

The door of the van slammed shut just as Tifa managed to wrestle out of her father's grip and haul open the front door.

"CLOUD! CLOUD!" She screamed, running after the rapidly disappearing van. "Not Cloud…"

She had begun to like him more than just a friend. He was always there for her when she came in from school. He would listen and recently was helping her with maths homework.

She kept running, her feet pounding against the dusty well worn ground as, barefoot, she thundered out of the village. Her breath heaved to breaking point she panted as she swung her arms for more momentum, barely outdoing her longer-legged father as he pursued her.

"CLOUD!" she screamed again, her voice scraped her throat and she fell to her knees, spitting out the gunge gathering in her rasping mouth.

"Daddy," she wheezed, "we have – to get him – back! They could do – ANYTHING - to – him!"

Mr Lockhart hugged his daughter. He couldn't do anything.

* * *

Cloud's dreams were racked with disturbing images and frightening pictures. Nightmares of his drunken father surfaced, rolled over to reveal a faceless mother swearing at him, he pushed through them into a scene with Tifa's parents yelling over how he was taking up too much money and they would have to put him down. Violent purples and yellows spilled throughout the images and warped his memories of those people.

When he finally surfaced, a piercing headache shot through him like the world's worst hangover. With a soft moan he tried not to pass out again.

"Yo man, what you got this time?"

"Just a dumb kid who couldn't do what he was told."  
"Aww man! Come on! Do I need to go do stuff again? Whatever happened to picking up strays here?"

Cloud forced open his eyes and the purple and yellow spots took over his eyes again, but not before glimpsing a flash of red hair and the white shine of some building that wasn't the back of a van.

He had to close them again before he threw up again. What the hell had they injected into him?

"Shut the hell up Reno, you and your Turks are there for clean up, that's what you fucking do, you got a problem, speak to the president. Anyway, not that I need to explain myself to you but the kid's father was sent to Hojo about three or four months ago, this kid's pure gold, no strings attached!"

"Score! Alright, throw him in the prison hold until we can find a use for him."

"We've got a use for him; Hojo wanted the boy as soon as he can stand."

"He's not doing much of that though is he?"

Cloud attempted to force his eyes open again and struggled, they felt like they'd been punched and that if he found a mirror they'd be bruised beyond black and blue.

His vision was fuzzy and the nausea rose in his throat again, he dry retched as he tried to climb to his knees, his arms turning cold and fleshy goosebumps rising on them. The red haze jumped back.

"Whoa man, what you done to this kid? Hojo's not gonna have much to play with…"

"It's his serum we test drived on him, come on lets take him upstairs."

Cloud felt his arm being grabbed again and he was dragged roughly up a flight of stairs, his lower half bumping against each step.

"Hey watch the materials, it's not often we get a kid to experiment on," cackled a new voice that Cloud instantly did not like.

"Sorry sir" exclaimed a distant voice. Cloud knew he was about to pass out again because the speaker was right next to him.

"Give him to me."

Cloud felt himself yanked by the arm and, too queasy to resist, fell into the arms of someone else. He was confused and disorientated, he had no idea where he was, what was happening and why. All he knew was he wasn't returning to Tifa's house in the next five minutes and that upset him.

_Let me go back home_ he tried to say but the words that left his mouth weren't tangible. He had been wrong. They had been pretending to come for the Lockharts. Cloud hadn't kept his room tidy enough and now they had come to draw him out of their house. It was because he didn't' go to school. It was because he wasn't tidying enough, making enough meals. He was becoming ungrateful. And then he suddenly realised; it was because he thought he was loved. He shouldn't have thought something so stupid. Cloud was a product of a broken home, a child who didn't deserve to be loved. He didn't deserve it. So the balance was restoring itself. Tifa was probably looking forward to her brother getting his room back, now they could be a proper family again and wouldn't have to expend any sympathy on him again. He didn't struggle when Hojo hauled him into the lift and curled up in a ball when he felt the ground push him up. He was too busy fighting tears to look out of the glass walls of the elevator as the entrance hall doors vanished beneath him.


	5. Bodily Fluids

A/N: OMG! I am SO sorry! I have been running around installing things and this that and the next thing and I had exams and then my computer decides to DIE and I lose the chapter I was writing as well as all my files! Great huh? Well, anyway, sorry about the wait and please enjoy! Also...as a second warning, this chapter gets a bit bad with slight non-con....just a warning.

**Chapter Five**

**Bodily Fluids**

Spending a night in a dark, dank cell was the second scariest thing Cloud would ever remember in his life. The flickering energy saving light-bulb winked menacingly at him as he huddled into the damp corner of the room where the makeshift bunk-bed had been thrown in last minute. Unlike the prisoner cells, the experiment cells were less well kept and the walls were smear with what Cloud hoped was only blood. He tried his hardest to keep his bare feet off the murky floor where an infestation of cockroaches had massed and the little legs clicked as they scuttled across the room.

Cloud hugged his knees and pressed up against the only dry wall in the room. The room was cold and he missed the mako; now he would have to deal with losing Tifa and her family the hard way.

They probably didn't want him anyway. They must have become tired of him eating their food and wasting their money on candy. He missed candy. What he wouldn't have done for some. But there were more pressing matters on his mind.

For example, why didn't any of them run out after him?

Cloud, beginning to panic and forgetting his Father had also been kidnapped, was rapidly making assumptions. It made sense. First his father run out on him, now the Lockharts; instead of uprooting themselves and moving away, sought to get rid of him the easy way. They sent for Shinra, he decided, and now they would do to him whatever they wished.

It wasn't like him to say that life wasn't fair; he had already figured that out years ago and it was so obvious to him that it wasn't worth mentioning.

The little blond stared, nauseated, at the cockroaches. There was a little family of them, he decided. But those little insects, he noted, could survive without their parents. He couldn't so...did that make him less than an insect?

A loud agonising wail from the next room made Cloud jump and he landed on the floor standing barefoot on several of the roaches with a sickening crack. A shiver ran up his spine and he resisted the urge to squeal. In the dim light he couldn't see how many he had crushed and because he couldn't see he thought he could feel some of them crawling up his ankle. He backed up into a corner of red sticky liquid which stuck in his hair and oozed down the back of his shirt. He ripped it off hurriedly and threw it on the floor with a whimper before hurriedly running his feet across it several times to remove the dead cockroach slime from them. He jumped back again and the cold of the stone floor hit his feet again sending his feet into spasm. He dove back onto the bed feeling twice as vulnerable as he did before.

He pulled a thin sheet of blanket over him and huddled up again. He slept badly, slipping in and out of conscious and waking at every scuttle, every creak, every whine or wail from the walls and hugged his arms around him, aching for the mako pool. Why did he always take things for granted?

* * *

When the door finally opened and the piercingly sharp light burst into the mouldy room Cloud shielded his eyes. Surely it wasn't time for him to get up and see Tifa to the bus stop for school already was it? The sun wasn't even out. And then with a horrible sinking feeling in the pit of his stomach he remembered, thanks to Shinra, Cloud wouldn't be seeing Tifa for a long time, if at all.

"Get out of there boy!" cackled a loud irritated voice that reminded the "boy" of a creaking floorboard. Still shielding his eyes, Cloud dashed out of the cell and as he tried to continue running, smacked into a red haired male, who remained standing, and he landed in a crumpled up heap, slamming his head against the floor.

"Woah there kiddo," chuckled an arrogant red haze while Cloud's head reeled and his vision fuzzed. "Where were you going in such a hurry?...Hey, Hojo...why doesn't he have a top on? Did you have your naughty old man way with him in the night? Oh God....oh man...that's sick! You should be ashamed of yourself you perverted old wierdo...heh heh!"

"Reno, do you really have nowhere better to be?"

"You're not in charge of me Hojo baby, besides, I told you, Sephiroth wants me to scope out the boy before hand, he wants you to make him -"

"I KNOW what he wants Reno!" Hojo sneered, where did he start on correcting him. "First of all, don't call me "baby" it's PROFESSOR Hojo to you sonny, secondly, tell Sephiroth that I can work better without constant interruptions and thirdly-" he grabbed the recovering blond by the arm before he could scamper off - "why would he send you? I mean...of all people Reno, really!"

"It's the attitude yo! Besides, the man knows I'm so fantastic at my job -"

"Reno, I can think of at least three hundred grunts more efficient in their execution than you, are you sure the General just didn't want you out of the way? Tell Sephiroth, I'll have this finished before the week is out if he keeps YOU away from me."

"I'd rather stay, Tseng is out looking for a birthday present for Cissnei – you know how he likes her- and I'd prefer to stay out of the way!"

"I'm sure I have a wyvern cage somewhere you could clean out for me."

"Oh? What's that?" Reno said holding up what could only have been a mickey mouse watch and nothing else to his ear, "sorry babes, but, Tseng is calling, he needs my expert advice on women to help him! Toodles Hoboman!"

With that Reno disapeared leaving Hojo thoroughly pissed off and Cloud thoroughly confused. The General Sephiroth...Tifa's Father had mentioned him before. Wasn't he leading the Shinra army through their occupation in Wutai? According to Mr Lockhart, there being there was only making the situation worse and if Shinra left and handed back the materia everything would go back to normal. The only flaw was that, apparently, the materia was gone under a pitiful excuse; some ninjas had sneaked in during the night and "pinched" it. Only, now the Wutains were done trying to compromise and resulted in full blown war. Cloud forgot the rest of the details and was trying to remember them when he was dragged into the laboratory and flung into a cage.

"Now boy," the demented scientist said sinisterly looking down at him with a pair of handcuffs. "You either co-operate and stick your hands out or it's another dosage of the anaesthetic, now that I know it works without killing you..."

Cloud, panicking put out his hands and looked at them. Hojo, already out of patience from Reno, rolled his eyes and yanked the boy's arms behind him earning a loud yelp from the startled boy. There was a click and the blond's wrists snapped together, his chest pushed out in front awkwardly.

Hojo walked around the room collecting things and eventually returned to the cage.

"I can't believe Reno thinks he can talk to me like that...you heard him didn't you boy? Tsk, the nerve of him, and Tseng just lets him wander around the building wreaking havoc and destruction like a gathering of wild school girls, hmm...I wouldn't be adverse to a gathering of school girls running around here and there actually, at least the havoc would seem trivial..considering there would be something to look at instead of Reno, something worth looking at for a change...why did they hire him in the first place? There should be more females around here, like Scarlet only more...touchable..."

Cloud zoned out, and stared ahead of him trying to examine the slightest thing for an exit. He was woken from his daze by the pierce of a needle worming down into the flesh of his left arm.

"-Actually come to think of it...you are very like a girl aren't you boy? Thin arms....soft skin..." the needle twisted and was ripped out, the liquid that was pressed into his arm seeping from the new wound. Cloud squealed a little and felt hands on his abdomen. His hands pulled at the chains trying to cover himself but failed.

"You even sound like a girl..." Hojo continued, his gnarled fingers trailed up the boy's stomach and rubbed against his fleshy pink areolas, eliciting a confused whimper. Cloud had no idea what Hojo was doing but it made him feel funny. A good funny.

"Ha...more like a girl than even I thought," Hojo hissed and pinched his nipples sharply drawing another yelp of pain. He drew his hands back and chortled.

"Stupid little boy," he said to the blond and returned to his desk, "but I suppose I can stop your pain this way-"

Cloud didn't know what he meant but he didn't like the sound of that. He heard chemicals mixing and the fizz of more liquids bubbling over and Hojo eventually walked over again and Cloud anticipated him touching him again. Why was he touching him like that? Nobody had ever done it before...

"Hojo?" he asked, clarifying the name.

"Ah, so he can speak..." Hojo laughed and pressed another syringe full of liquid into the boy's shoulder between the bars. Cloud tightened, his chest pressing forward in pain. Hojo laughed cruelly.

"I bet you're an interesting fuck...hey, boy, have you ever been penetrated before?"

Cloud tried to look around at Hojo but his neck wouldn't let him and his arms were too tightly bound to give any slack. Those old hands pulled out the needle and wrapped around his bare torso yet again. They were warm on his cold skin and goosebumps rose on the skin of his arms. His shuddered involuntarily and the hands pressed against his chest. He squirmed a little, his back leaning against the bars of the cage.

Cloud whimpered, unsure if he should like this new feeling or not. His trousers were beginning to feel tight and he needed to use the bathroom. He kicked out.

"Stop! Please, M-mister Hojo...I – I can't...let me out, please, I- I need the bathroom....please..." he pined, but Hojo persisted, rubbing his fingers against him even quicker than before.

"Sensitive...aren't you child?"

Cloud wailed and scrunched his eyes up, he was going to wet himself.

"PLEAAAASE!"

"Don't tell me what to do you impudent child," Hojo said sternly and pinched the tips roughly. It was starting to hurt and Cloud could almost feel the bruising starting and pulled at the chains more frantically. The complaining wasn't helping and neither was the struggling. With another squeal, Cloud felt his cheeks flush and suddenly his trousers were sticky and wet.

"M-mister Hojo...." he stuttered, "I...I...think I...I wet myself...I-"

Hojo laughed again.

"Ha, and he doesn't even know a thing about this...how old are you boy?"

"I...um....I'm fifteen."

"That's okay then..."

Cloud continued to have concoctions squirted into his bloodstream for the remainder of the day and stopped squealing. Occasionally he jumped in fright at the injection point but the complaining stopped although the now drying stickiness in his underwear was beginning to dry and it rubbed against him uncomfortably.

At the end, Cloud didn't want to return to the cell.

"Please...Hojo....Please...no...."

"It's PROFESSOR Hojo!" The Professor screeched slammed the door shut. Cloud slumped to his knees, uncaring about the bugs on the floor and tried not to cry. His shoulder ached and his chest was throbbing painfully and he knew he wouldn't sleep. He hammered on the door for a full twenty minutes before it was opened again. He would punch Hojo and run; but before he could, his arm was yanked back and the nauseating yellow liquid was injected into him again. His stomach lurched and, after bringing up the bile in his empty stomach he passed out.


	6. Connections

A/N: Omg....that was a really bad chapter to write...at least in a sense of grossness it was. Well....keep reviewing! Now that I have the ability to write again, the chapters will be more frequent again. Shorter than I had planned for this chapter but hopefully the next will be longer.

**Chapter Six**

**Connections**

Cloud rolled around the floor in another fitful sleep. He ground his teeth and moaned as his stomach and his organs danced inside him. The chemicals inside Cloud sloshed around his bloodstream, corroding his body and changing him much to its thrashing resistance. Several times he rolled over, waking just in time to stop himself choking on his own vomit. His teeth chattered and when he could hold his balance enough to crawl for a blanket he found he could see around the darkened room. It wasn't a comforting sight to see and Cloud checked his hands to re-assure himself that he wasn't glowing. Although, if he were, (not that he would know), it would probably be from the years of bathing in mako anyway.

It had been three days since he had been forced into the building and Cloud had began to hate himself again. Tifa seemed like a distant memory and he could barely remember what day of the week it was never mind his father's face. He felt unclean. Hojo's clammy old fingers had violated every part of him and already the boy was crusty with scabs from the healing injection points. His hair was going back to its matted ways and every muscle in his body ached with the side effects of the drugs. He felt sick.

The little blond was more than just mentally and physically exhausted.

He found himself in his cell shivering. Hojo had barely moments before bound him and tried to touch him. With his clammy skin being groped, Cloud felt uncomfortable and wailed.

"Shut up boy, do you want the sedative again?"

By this point, Cloud didn't care any more, anything to get this creepy old man away from him. Despite his warnings, the skinny creature threw his weight around the cage and kicked and scratched weakly at the old man. Hojo's patience dwindled rapidly and, with a particularly potent dosage of the yellow liquid, a needle tore through the skin on his neck and the boy screamed louder, dry retching immediately. Still, with every last ounce of strength, he persisted on screaming till Hojo, at the end of his tether, unchained the boy and kicked him into the cell again. He landed with a noisy thud and a soft crack.

The roach infestation had grown exponentially and Cloud hadn't the strength to pull himself up on the bed away despite watching them scuttle towards him and the door seemed so far away. There was no doubts any more about what the red splodges across the room were. Whatever had been in the room last had saw fit to smear its innards down the walls and drag itself into the corner where it was gnawed away by a family of thriving cockroaches. Cloud couldn't tell what it was but there were heaps of tissue and internal organs scattered across the room. The nearest one, the remains of a lung – he thought- was smothered with the eggs and, repulsed, when the blond tried to crawl away, his stomach convulsed and he found himself screaming uncontrollably.

The next thing the boy was aware of were voices chattering around him. He didn't open his eyes but he listened in. A strong smell hit his nostrils; it was an overwhelming cross between chlorine and anaesthetic, and it made him feel dizzy, even though he was lying down.

"I don't know what happened, I did exactly as was asked, how was I to know it would have that effect on the boy? Anyway, it's all in the name of science, we can get another boy, a better one it's not like there a shortage of young boys trying to get into the army-"

"What exactly did you use?"

"I only used the chemicals you asked me to! Okay, so the order was a little out but science proves that if I had injected the potassium permanganate after the-"

"All at once?" a sour and unimpressed voice replied. Cloud could hear everything clearly but his eyes wouldn't open.

"NO! I started with a lower dosage- and if you didn't keep sending ginger into my lab to distract me I probably -"

"Are you saying your incompetence is my fault Hojo? If you are-"

"HEY YO! It's RED not GINGER! LOOK! You gottit? RED- LOOK AT IT! RED! You got it?"

"Reno, you have three seconds to get out of my sight before I paint the room red with your blood and send what's left to your last fuck...in third class!"

"Shinra says you're not to bully me any more mister Sephy-roth!" the voice replied in a whiny mock whimper that earned a grown from the deep voice.

"RENO! I don't give a shit what that imbecile thinks, do NOT think for a minute I do-" the was a "shlick" of metal sliding across steel- "or I'll use your head as target practise."

"Sephiroth..." gasped a female voice, "please, restrain yourself, he's not worth it."

Cloud shuddered. Whoever was standing above him didn't care what anyone though of him, he realised. He was in danger. A shudder trailed down what could have been his back.

"Yo, babycake, that wasn't what you were screaming in my ear last night. Heh! Chill, chill. I'm going, not much happening around here anyway, I'll check on the kid's father, he's probably in a more chatty mood yo...given you haven't spoken to him in at least a week."

"Reno!" replied the voice Cloud knew as Hojo. "Just leave. GO. Find an angry poisonous reptile to annoy."

"Hmph, for once, I have to agree with the old man...leave now and I'll see that you do so in one piece."

"Alright alright! Was boring here anyway, give Spiky my regards when he wakes!" There was an echoing click of footsteps as he left the room in a huff. The female voice called out from somewhere across the other side of the room.

"Is there anyone here that can stand him?"

"No idea sir."

"His vitals are stable now, the stomach pump was a success...since there was nothing else in his stomach, I really suggest you get something inside him though, anything, he's tremendously weak, it's amazing he's lasted this long. That might explain why he keeps fainting...his rib should be okay too, there was a hairline fract-"

"Oh yes... they need food don't they...."

Cloud tried to force his eyes open and found himself, with a thud, on his front.

"I think the child is awake." replied the deeper of the two voices.

"I realised that....boy, you're having trouble with your motor neurons connections, they are failing to join properly and you're probably going to be paralysed, can you at least try and open you eyes instead of flailing around like an idiot so we can assess the damage."

"I am," Cloud tried to say but his mouth went the wrong way.

"Hojo, you incompetent psycho, was it your intention to kill the boy?" the cold voice grew nearer and it picked him up. Cloud tried to cling, he felt the chill of taught leather but the human contact was too wonderful to resist, and, as he tried to reach up, his arm swung up and whacked the person lifting him in the face. The flutter of noise that Cloud was aware of in the background disintegrated and a deathly hush osmosed throughout the room. He found himself on the stretcher again. He tried to annunciate again but the moan that let his throat was undistinguishable even to himself.

"I'm going to assume, just this once, that this is a result of Hojo's recklessness, Cloud, is it? Child, can you open your eyes yet?"

The deep throaty voice became distant as he was placed on the soft slightly springy hospital bed. Cloud assumed whoever owned the voice was moving back to avoid being walloped in the face again. Cloud tried to nod but his head lolled back. He tried again to look around him He felt something move but it wasn't his eyes.

"Nearly, you moved your mouth that time, try higher."

Cloud didn't know how he was going to work this, but he needed more external feedback to work with than sound so he tried again. Hearing and smelling weren't enough to live on, he needed his sight. His left eyelid opened but it was only because a thumb and forefinger were prying it apart. He caught a glimpse of the room and a silver haired man looking down at him between the collecting buds of moisture.

"Can you feel this boy? Concentrate. The muscles around this area, focus, feel where they are first, then make the connection."

Cloud thought hard, searching for the feeling of those strong hands, the soft touch against his eyes, and pushed. He felt the muscles move but they spasmed and, trying to reach up and put pressure on them, Cloud's hands shot up, hit himself in the face and missed. He cried out but it was pitiful. He was stuck inside his head.

"MMMHHHH!!!" he screeched. _MAKO! _The life-stream would take care of him. Anything to get him out of his own head before he had the chance to go mad. "KHHHMHHH!" He tried his hardest to stop the tears from leaking down the side of his cheeks but with no control over any of his limbs it was impossible.

"I'll take him from here Hojo." Did Cloud notice a trickle of sympathy in that tone?

"But I-"

"YOU'LL DO... as I say, you've already fucked this kid up enough, Gaia knows what you'd have done to him given the chance, fucking hell."

"But Sephiroth...."

The General glared at him and he was silenced. Even a look from the powerful man was enough to bring greater men to tears.

"But nothing. I'm not having you destroy him, not when, we could use him for other things, worse comes to the worst, you can inject mako into him, put him out of his misery but for the mean time; stay the hell away from him."

Cloud remained limp, not even attempting to cling this time for fear he would be put back down again. He needed to get away from that blood soaked room with it's smell of fear and pain, its insect covered mass and the dampness of the mouldy walls that clung to his lungs. If he had to deal with this in the meantime he would. He had taken his muscle use for granted, he thought bitterly, that's why their usage had been taken from him. At least someone was taking pity on him and willing to put himself through misery for his sake. That was more than he deserved. And he knew about the healing power of mako. This General Sephiroth, although apparently the cause of the war in Wutai, was his ticket out of this hell.

"You're coming with me."

Cloud didn't argue and remained limp. He felt himself hauled over a shoulder and a pain shot through his chest; possibly the cracked rib. It's wasn't the most dignified of ways to be carried but Cloud didn't really know what that word meant anyway.

"I'll get you a wheelchair from reception...it's not much consolation but, you're not the worst case that's come out of his laboratory, trust me."

He was right, Cloud thought, it wasn't a consolation. Not even a little. But he had earned this punishment and now he would deal with it; coward that he was.

He missed his mountain. He missed his father. He missed Tifa...

Tifa...had she really existed? Did her family? Or was it a conjuration of his mind to prevent his decent into madness from lonliness? He didn't care so long as this....nightmare let him go.


	7. Hope in Hell

**A/N: Thank everybody for those inspiring reviews so, instead of waiting till sunday... which originally the plan, I worked to post it up earlier! Yay! Go me!**

**Chapter Seven**

**Hope in Hell**

The shiny silver wheelchair barely held him up. His neck tilted at an angle that would later crick his head and he slumped to one side, unable to hold himself upright, or even at all.

"It's not much but it's preferable to being carried everywhere right?" It was preferable for Sephiroth anyway.

Cloud doubted it. Being stuck in a wheelchair was almost asking to be stared at or thought of as far weirder than he ever had before. His eyes were finally open, the connection barely resettling and, though it was a struggle he could open then to see but he couldn't move anything else. It had taken him a week to get this far and so far, none of his muscles were working. The drip in his arm was the only thing keeping him alive and, to the humility of Cloud, the aid of a catheter to drain waste fluids. It was repulsive, sickening and definitely not ideal. But Cloud had to be grateful, at least someone was helping...it was better than being stuck in Hojo's cell and subjected to his physical abuse, though Cloud wasn't aware that it was known as that at the time.

He was grateful of Sephiroth. More grateful then he never that was possible. For the past few days, whenever he had time, the General would take the boy out around the grounds and some of the floors in his wheelchair. It had been fun at first; but it was becoming harder to ignore the fact that no-one wanted to make eye contact, some of them even going as far as to walk into other rooms to avoid it. Not to say that Cloud wanted the attention but he didn't like feeling like such an outcast; a less important member of society; whatever that was. He even felt terrible for what he must have done to Sephiroth's reputation. Regardless of whether he wanted it or not. The majority of soldiers that passed him avoided as much of his limp lifeless body as they could.

Except one.

Reno. Cloud didn't like him however. The red headed sexual tension incarnate had been there before. He remembered the red fuzz of hair as his earliest memory of Shinra. Reno could have stopped it, Reno could have prevented it all from happening full stop. But he didn't, he had just left him and things could have deteriorated into a worse state if Sephiroth hadn't been there to prevent the evil and demented scientist from performing even more cruel and unusual experiments on him. But Reno was one of the few who still treated him like a human being; even if he hadn't before and without fail, met his gaze ever time, even trying to grab it when Cloud didn't want it by the occasional hair ruffle. It was just one extreme to the other and Cloud hated feeling so helpless. So needy. So trapped. Why couldn't he just have let the mako fountain claim him when he had the chance? Would it really have a made a difference? Cloud hoped it wouldn't as means to cheer himself up.

As he lay, staring into space on the spare bed (Sephiroth had made several third class soldiers drag it into his quarters) even the General noted something was amiss. He had gotten to know Sephiroth very well over the last few days and had even let (not that he had an option in the matter) him bathe him. Cloud was even starting to prefer Sephiroth's baths to Tifa's baths.

"There's no point sitting there feeling sorry for yourself, we have work to do." he finished buckling up his long leather jacket and walked over. Cloud felt himself lifted into the wheelchair in his crumpled form. His clothes were loose tracksuit bottoms and a zip up jumper for quickness. Sephiroth had dressed him several minutes earlier and they were still the best fitting clothes he had ever worn.

"I prefer your hair clean Cloud, it has a certain....je ne sais que....perhaps it's the fact it occupies every single inch of space it can possibly reach....we should trim it maybe...hah, as if I would..." Sephiroth grasped his own chunky silver ponytail and pulled it over his shoulder to observe it.

"I haven't cut my hair in over twenty years boy....you don't need to look so worried, I understand the pain of losing it...as does the last hairdresser who worked here!" The General laughed deeply and quietly at his private joke.

Cloud rolled his eyes he'd heard this twice now. Sephiroth almost smiled.

"Well now, don't think I can't see those pretty little eyes twitch there child, I know what you must think...but...do you think I care?" he was smiling now and there was a twinkle in Cloud's eye that hadn't been there for a while. Sephiroth clasped the boy's floppy chin.

"Come now, let's go for a walk to the gym, we'll get you walking won't we?"

That sparkle that continued to blaze in Cloud's eyes was yes enough for the tall silver haired man who wheeled him out of the room, taking extra care, Cloud noticed, not to bump him over the floor divider at the doorway. The door closed automatically behind them and they took the lift down. Cloud had decided that he hated lifts. Particularly the see-through ones at Shinra which showed off the ground he was heading towards at a speed that lurched his stomach and jostled his weakened frame. When the lift reached their stop and Sephiroth backed him out of the lift, swiping his key-card as he passed the appropriate machine, two loud second class soldiers passed them. Cloud heard them whisper to each other as they walked.

"Hey Darren, how'd your physical go ?"

"Dunno, I got it this afternoon.... did you hear about Craig when he failed it....?"

"Yeah turns out the general tore him a new one...you gotta pass this man or you're fucked... literally."

"Could be worse, could be like that Cloud dude... I bet he really did fuck him, have you seen the state he left him? He can't even walk the poor sod!"

The two of them were too busy giggling their heads off that they never noticed Sephiroth approach them and a firm hand clamp on each of their shoulders.

"What's the joke, girls?"

The colour drained from their faces as they turned to stare at their better.

"General Sephiroth sir!"

"No joke sir, just....preparing for our physical, honest."

"Leave. Quickly. Before I change my mind."

As they thundered off, Sephiroth glanced back at Cloud, who didn't even understand what they had been talking about. He stroked the soft blonde hair and continued wheeling him off to eventually the room behind the gym. Cloud felt sickened immediately.

"We'll get you walking again boy, maybe today's the lucky day?" The General seemed of the fixed opinion that Cloud would walk again but, given that Cloud could barely hold up his neck, he, himself, wasn't convinced.

"Alright, you know the drill," he pulled a semi burbling Cloud forward and clasped the boy's head against his shoulder. With yet another needle Cloud didn't want exploring his body, the larger man pressed a small dosage of a hazy off-green misty liquid into the back of his neck. It was yet another liquid Sephiroth would push into the boy in an attempt to reverse the paralysis.

Hojo had, for the last few days recommended he avoid using it. The resulting poisoning from the pure concentrated form would possibly kill him but Sephiroth decided it would be better to risk death than end up babysitting a retarded kid for the next lifetime. Having Cloud around wasting his free time and taking up his energy and training time was not helpful. He hadn't realised, when he asked Hojo for an assistant that could help him when he went out to Wutai, that Hojo would pick the wimpiest weakling he found and torture the poor fucker half to death. As much as Sephiroth loved to see an insect squirm there was a point where the fun was completely drained from the equation The point had well passed at which the suffering stopped serving a purpose or amusing him. Cloud had passed the amusement point and was now at the very annoying point. He was fast approaching the not worth the effort point. If he could reverse the effects and retry the experiment, PROPERLY, he perhaps stood a chance of achieving his goal. It would seem that keeping the boy's father alive and "contained" would be worth the effort, just as well they'd kept him alive long enough to be needed. After so many years, Sephiroth mused, it was ironic he'd been caught because of his pathetic child. not that he would have been so pathetic when he had the use of his limbs of course. Surely.

"This should heal some connections, at the very very least, it will numb the pain." he snapped, thinking through the aforementioned and pushed him back against the chair.

Cloud didn't think anything being stabbed through his flesh would stop any pain but he was in for a shock as the liquid swirled around his head giving him a buzz and wrapped his insides in a beautiful numbness like the moment just before you fully awaken.

Mako...he was drowning in mako, his senses throbbed, pulsated and writhed in the most sensational ways. His body longed for it, absorbing it into his blood stream like a drug, using it up almost immediately.

"Mmm....aaakoo," the blond accidentally drooled, Sephiroth reluctantly wiped the spittle from his mouth with a disgusted look, trying to hide the fact he was impressed it had worked. "Puuueeaaaaazzzz......morrrrrr...." he continued to gargle, his voice finding itself as the concentrated lifestream purged his body of the blockages in his spinal fluid; the congealment of the chemicals injected throughout his body. Sephiroth knew that injecting too much would cause the poisoning Hojo warned him about, even if it had healed him. He could already her the liquid buzz warmly through his vocal chords as he spoke.

But he didn't know about Cloud's unusual overuse of it in the past; his uncanny attachment to the life force and he wasn't going to push it. The constant overuse of the pure liquid since he was young however, had slowed down Cloud's body's repair system. To say the boy was addicted was a serious understatement; the boy more than needed it, he couldn't function without it. With his jaw slightly hanging open, he forced the words out.

"Pu.....eaaaaassss," he begged, more drool slid down his chin, he felt ridiculous, and wished he could reach out to grab Sephiroth's hand. He couldn't though, as one hand was wrapped with a bandage to the chair with a drip in it and the other merely twitched periodically. "Pu..eaaaass....neeeh....iih...."

In a rare moment of mercy, the silver long haired General glanced at the other vials of mako swirling and whorling around in the open cupboard. They were kept there in small doses for soldiers in need of a boost before training, almost like a natural steroid only far more potent. He hesitated. Those puppy eyes; the only part of Cloud that didn't look particularly vacant, the only part that displayed the potential underneath those malfunctioning limbs, the scared little boy who had lost a father, his entire being, and was trapped there, completely alone and...(Sephiroth recognised something of himself) trapped inside his own head. Sephiroth didn't need help as a child to question himself to the point of breaking, only so much could distract him and this was probably what brought on the rare moment of sympathy.

"I fold." he said lifting the boy's chin lightly but not tenderly. He looked straight into those cool icy blue eyes with his own hardened , "If you die however, at least it's a mercy killing, and I can blame Hojo."

Cloud looked at him dolefully, aching for his fix. He picked out another vial, half the concentration than before.

"Lean." He directed, and Cloud, found himself just able to tilt his head a little with his anticipating need, Sephiroth's finger pushed down on the plunger. The blond behind him moaned weakly in bliss, his head thumped against the General's upper leg.

There was a slight chuckle that vibrated through the larger man's torso and down his left leg to where the boy's head rested.

"I didn't think it was so addictive..."

"More?" Cloud tried, his tongue reaching out to moisten cracked lips.

"No. I'm not having you overdosing on it now, let this course run its magick and then we shall consider more." The newer dose flushed through him again, spilling out to the tips of his arms and down to his torso. His fingers tingled and flexed tentatively The recovery was instantaneous and Sephiroth looked incredibly pleased with himself.

"That's the last time I listen to that psychotic physicist," he announced suddenly, "now remove that spiky head of yours from my thigh...."

Cloud did so quickly.

"Thank you mister Sephiroth, thank you, I know it's late but....thank you-"

"You're far to liberal with your humbleness."

Cloud blinked, what did he just say?

"Say what you need to once, you don't need to flounder over words repeatedly,"

"R...right."

"Right what?"

"Huh? What?"  
Sephiroth rolled his eyes. This body was of more use voiceless; he had no respect for authority; but that was easily remedied. He peeled out his sword from it's sheath and pointed it at the boy. Though his seriously deteriorated muscles were still re-assimilating the boy managed to pull himself back quick enough as the tip of the metal grazed his neck.

"GENERAL. I am your superior boy, is that clear? You will refer to me as either General or Sir, understood?"

"Yes sir."

"You will speak when spoken to understand?"  
"I...usually do....well, I couldn't before because of the incident, but before that I did."

Sephiroth's gaze hardened, the pressure of the sword increased, a lump gathered in Cloud's mouth that he would not dare attempt to swallow back.

"AND ONLY in context!"

"Cont-"

"Only about the topic I have questioned you about."

"Um...okay?"

"Okay what?"

"It's okay about what you-"

"You answer "Okay Sir" and ONLY "Okay Sir"!"

"Okay Sir!"

Sephiroth smiled.

"Good boy."


	8. Broken Spirits

**A/N:** Okay, this chapter has some noncon yaoi in it. Not the kind you're thinking of though so be warned, it's going to be quite bad....

**Chapter Eight**

**Broken Spirits**

"Can you walk yet?"

"No sir."

"Have you tried yet?"

"Yes sir."

"Really?"

"No sir."

"Try now."

The General's quarters were twice as large as the grunts' rooms and, though the third class soldiers usually shared with a room-mate, Sephiroth had his, (including a commodity the other's didn't; a warm shower), all to himself. Well...he had until now.

"I can't sir." The boy said sadly. He pushed his arms up from the bed and lifted himself into a sitting position. Then he reached out to his wheelchair with those spindly arms and, straining, pulled himself into the chair. He had almost worked a bit of strength into them, although weaker than they had ever been after losing control he found their was less of him to lift and, although Cloud couldn't feel anything below the waist, Cloud was determined to get the mako for it while the opportunity window was still open. Once that window closed, his legs would be virtually useless and he'd have to work on it himself. He wasn't sure any more how exactly he knew this but in the past his Father had broken his arm and his way up the mountain had been delayed. His healing time had taken a full week to occur instead of a few days.

"Alright, but I want at least four laps of the room, in the mean time we'll see if we can strengthen your upper body enough to give you a room of your own, I'm going in the shower..." with nothing over his torso but a towel draped over his shoulder and brushing his solid abdomen. His trousers were resting on his hips and no more, the button, belt and zip were undone showing off finely toned stomach muscles that Cloud stared at longingly. All he had was a malnourished skeletal frame that hadn't seen a proper two thousand five hundred calories in single day his whole life.

"Sir? When can I go home?"

"When can you -?" Sephiroth looked around and stared at the boy. "Home? Isn't this your home?"

"N-not that I'm ungrateful for everything you've done for me....unless, the Tifa's didn't- I don't want-"

Sephiroth sneered.

"The Lockharts? They called us," he lied convincingly, "They wanted rid of you, even though you could walk you were about as as much use to them then as you are to me now. Do you really want to go back to a place where no-one wants you?"

"I..." Cloud shook his head.

"Pardon?" Sephiroth asked with a frown.

"I...No, Sir."

"You will stay with me, we'll get you walking and then, afterwards we shall see that hurdle when we get to it."

"Sir, please...." he wheeled his chair forward, "I...just need some mako, I grew up on Nibel-"

"No! This is not up for discussion you stupid boy. You'll do as I tell you and you'll appreciate it, you are not killing yourself because you are too cowardly to train yourself."

"I do appreciate it sir! I swear, I just...please, when I was younger, I -"

"I don't care what you think about this, you clearly don't understand how dangerous it is to your being, it could destroy your mind boy, no, I don't think we'll be doing it this way. Five laps, now, I want you sweating and panting for me coming out of the bathroom, start now."

"I can't -"

The door slammed shut behind a flurry of satin like silver hair with a thunderous bang. Cloud cringed and stared at the floor. He had two options here; he could either struggle with five laps of the medium sized room or prise open the door and go search out some mako.

He didn't have Sephiroth's key card so opening the door would have been tricky had it not already been off the hook,. With a bit of stretching and craning his arms around awkwardly, he managed to pull it open and wheel himself out into the hallway. The door slammed behind him but not nearly as loud as Sephiroth's attempt. However the noise of the shower continued. So far so good. Now, the elevator was somewhere nearby. He didn't need a card to get out but he would need one to get back. Unfortunately, the slightly dim young boy hadn't thought that far ahead and wheeled himself through into the elevator with slight excitement. He was going to that cupboard, and he would walk as soon as he injected himself with some more. Between Sephiroth and Hojo's cruel ways of injecting the needle straight into the muscle as long as he followed their examples it would be easy.

He told himself that as he scanned the buttons. Floor Sixty-four wasn't it? The gym was located in the middle of the floor and, given the amount of times he'd been seen with Sephiroth on that floor, surely it would only seem natural again he was there because he should be. He pressed the sixty-four button promptly and tried to contain himself. Unfortunately, when the doors opened again, two third class soldiers shoved into the box before he could wheel himself out, cheering about sparring practise and then one of them noticed Cloud. He had pushed himself back into the very back of the small square of space trying to avoid just that.

"Hey guys, look, it's the General's little bitch!"

"I say we show the General what happens when he makes us run extra laps in the pissing rain..." there was a murmur of agreement and Cloud found himself lifted out of the wheelchair and dragged into the very floor he wanted to go into but under the wrong circumstances.

"No! Please sir, put me down, I- I need mako." Cloud attempted to fight his way out, punching as hard as he could into the back of the soldier carrying him into the shower rooms. "Please, I just...need- omph!" The wind was knocked out of him slightly as he was thrown onto one of the benches. His head hit the bench and he screeched, his arms shot up as tiny lights exploded behind his eyes.

While he was waiting for the reeling sickness to fade out he felt a tugging at his waist.

"-do you think he'll have the common sense not to bite down?"

"Sephiroth's probably trained him not to..."

His vision returned in time to see one of the soldiers straddling down on his chest. He jumped in fright but the soldier had him pinned.

"Alright then," he said with a grin, "show me what you can do." Cloud, panicking, was more bothered about the soldier behind him, he felt a draught as his trousers were pulled down. He was pulling words out of the conversation but still he wasn't entirely sure what was going on.

"Hey look Michael" the one at his lower half jeered, "Sephiroth is a fucking perv all right look, the boy can't get up at all, he's practically immovable from the waist down, there's no muscle control! No feeling either I don't think...nope none!"

"Shame, he probably won't clench up either!" laughed the one on Cloud's rapid heaving chest. "Hey boy, it's okay, calm down, we won't hurt you, we just want to know how you take of Sephiroth okay?" He ran his hand soothingly along Cloud's jaw line.

"I don't -"

"No, not by talking," he said softly, and unzipped his pants. Cloud had no idea where this was going when he saw the soldier pull his already semi hard on out, "with this...."

Cloud closed his eyes quickly.

"Please um...I can see...you're not supposed to take it out in public..."

"Haha, do you hear this, he's trained him so he acts like a little kid,"

"What a- freak!Oh Gaia, that's not the only thing, he's not even penetrated the boy, there's resistance! I may have tore him though..." grunted the guy behind him, Cloud didn't know what he was doing but his stomach seemed to be too big for his chest. He groaned a little thinking he had a sore stomach.  
"I need the bathroom....please you -"

"No resistance? So his mouth must be a good fuck to take care of him alone." With no warning he rammed his stiffening rod forcefully into the boy's mouth. The resulting scream was muffled and the boy choked, leaning back to try and dislodge it.

"Don't even THINK about biting or I'll snap every bone in your pathetic legs and make damn SURE you'll never walk again, suck it now, and make me enjoy it bitch."

Cloud didn't know what to do. The strong smell of the soldier nauseated him and he could barely keep himself from gagging. However, he had been told to suck him and surely the quicker he did it, the quicker he'd go away.

"Oh...for someone so skilled, he's not- uhhh, that's it, good boy, up and down faster," the soldier hissed, his hands pushing against the back of the boy's head, forcing him along his length. Cloud choked again and his eyes started watering.

"Hey, um.. I think this kids still a virgin..." the soldier said worriedly in between pants, his abdomen tightening.

"You- just- figure- that out-?," gasped the one shaking Cloud's bottom half. He shuddered and Cloud lurched forward, all but swallowing the soldier stuffed down his throat. There was something warm being forced into his stomach and it felt uncomfortable. He engulfed the other man who exploded down his throat. Cloud gagged again, the disgusting liquid pouring down his chin and dribbling down his top. When the soldiers climbed off him he jerked to the side and threw up on the floor, shaking violently.

"I think we should leave, pronto, Sephiroth finds us, we're the one's that' be fucked!" And they did, leaving Cloud lying in a puddle of liquids and still coughing and hacking.

"I knew something was up when I saw them running out like that yo...plus the empty chair in the elevator gave it away."

Cloud continued shuddering staring at Reno wordlessly as the red headed weasel stood staring from the doorway.

"Oh my..." Reno cleared his throat and looked away, Cloud looked down, propping himself up on shaky arms and saw his trousers were down and he was on show....was he wetting himself? Why was it white and from the wrong end? His cheeks flamed up and he scrambled off the bench, narrowly missing the pool of sick.

"Here..come on man," Reno said sympathetically, "come on, we'll get you back."

The moment the red head touched him, Cloud burst into tears, sudden realisation swarming into him.

"Wh-what did they do to...to me? I'm...sorry...I'm scared." he whimpered. Reno bit his lip, stuck for an answer.

"They...raped you Cloud, where is Sephiroth?"

"R-raped?"

Reno was reluctant to pick him up. The boy was saturated in semen and he didn't want to leave him. If any other soldier found him in that state, he knew they would likely follow suit and copy the first two.

"I'll bring your wheelchair though just – stay there!" _Not that he could go anywhere_ the red head thought bitterly.

"NO!" Cloud exclaimed and reached out, other arm struggling to hold his weight. Reno regarded him with a crisis of conscience. Did he leave the boy here to Gaia's good graces while he fetched his wheelchair or did he pick up the gungy child and risk smearing his suit with several types of male fluids? (Thus drastically reducing his pulling ability and his chances of receiving a yes when he asked the receptionist out on a date. But then, she had already pepper sprayed him three times that week and only yesterday too. Plus she had called security (and Tseng) on him four times resulting in being kicked out of the building and climbing in through the fourth floor window, not an easy feat when he had no helicopter to aid his ascent. Either way, the Turk's chances weren't high in the first place).

"Jeesh Spiky! I'm between a rock and hard place here! I leave you here and anything happens I'm going to risk Sephiroth tearing me a new one for it -"

"How could he-?"

"He knows everything!....just...if I bring you back, I'll ruin my shirt and Sephiroth is going to ask questions and fuck me over if he thinks it was me...I mean....you're a pretty boy and all that but...not my type, too docile, and -WHERE THE HELL IS HE ANYWAY?"

"He's...taking a shower..." Cloud squeaked quietly, tears persistently drizzling down his sticky cheeks. "Do you have...c-can I have a d-drink?...if I'm not asking for too much...I'm sorry...really really sorry."

"Fucking hell, they really fucked you up pretty bad didn't they man? You won't stop shaking..."

Clearly, from the look he gave him, Cloud had overstepped the margin. He huddled up into an almost ball, his legs trailing behind him.

"I'm sorry, I d-don't – please don't leave me, please I-" he stopped as Reno pulled out a flask from the inside pocket of his jacket. He unscrewed it and handed it to the boy.

"It's the best I can do...careful yo, it's really potent."

Cloud didn't know what potent (or impotent for that matter) meant. So he took the flask gingerly but gratefully and guzzled the alcohol inside mercilessly.

"HEY!" Reno exclaimed and snatched his hip flask back. "I said to watch it! You get enough of this in your system, you'll -"

Cloud grabbed his stomach, doubled up in pain.

"My tummy...it hurts...it burns...."

"Course it does! You drunk some of my own brew man, it's better than acid, rips your innards to shreds unfortunately."

"It what??"

"Not literally Spikes, it's alcohol,"

"Alcohol?" Cloud vaguely remembered that word....

His father used to drink alcohol. He could barely remember his father. He remembered; _keep your bloody mitts off my fucking alcohol_ though. As he thought of his father he felt another pang in his stomach. Why did his father run away, why did Cloud run away from Nibelheim, who was that black haired girl whose image danced on the outskirts of his memory and why couldn't he- hic- remember? And where was his mako stream? As the alcohol and the mako in his system fused together, the boys arm finally gave and he collapsed into a childlike sleep. Reno, took out his communicator; a hi-tech walkie-talkie with individual channels. It buzzed and crackled to show there was a reception.

"Yo man, Red Rooster here, Egghead you there?"

"What have I told you about calling me that Reno."

"Come on man, use the nicknames! And besides, you know you love it."

"....." The connection buzzed.

"Come on man, lighten up, did I catch you during a five finger fondle or something man?"

"Did you have a reason for calling or did you just want to talk dirty?"

"Mmm, I always wanna talk dirty to you, that's why they call you Rude, hehe, woah, woah don't disconnect, you seen the wheelchair going for a joyride in the lift?"

"Uhuh."

"Can you arrest it and send it to the showers for a good long soak with the Rooster."

"Why did someone finally snap your legs for talking bullshit to them?"

"No, but if your quick I be able to fit you in – between them."

"Make sure you soak your head while your there Reno,"

"My head's soaking already."

"In a cold shower."

"HA! That's no fun."

"Hey boys," crackled a female across the intercom. "will you two grow up!"

"Whoo, Rude, you got girls round or did you forget to press the pause button on the dvd player?"  
"It's Cissnei, and if you too aren't finished buttering each other crumpets, can you change to another line, Tseng is trying to discuss plans regarding the President's safety here."

Reno chuckled into the mouthpiece.

"Whatever, red breast birdy, just make sure Rude sends the wheelchair up to the sixty-fourth floor okay? Then we can butter your muffin too and have a sandwich too, a proper picnic."

"I never agreed to that nickname Reno." Cissnei replied, ignoring his innuendo.

Reno disconnected, he hated it when skirts got bitchy and he could tell she was working up a big rant. He chuckled as he thought through the names he'd made up himself. Okay, so no-one was using them yet but still, some day. Rude was Egghead for obvious reasons. Cissnei was his little Robin Red Breast....for two reasons. Tseng was The Heron because he had a (long) hard neck. And Reno? Another name for a rooster was cock. And Reno was very proud of his-

The blond started and shuddered in his drunken sleep.

"Alright kid," The cock said, "let's get you back to The Swan; elegant, graceful, but one helluva temper when protecting it's yung'uns."


	9. Silent Sacrifice

A/N: Whoot! Thanks for all the support, especially you Mizu-chan, Tobi-Uchiha and Dragi. I only got four last chapter...but thank you for them nonetheless!!! They make me write more : ) cookies for all you reviewers!

**Chapter Nine**

**Silent Sacrifice**

"Reno, my dear Reno...can you please tell me, what is going on?"

Reno gulped silently and took a step back from the glistening and still moist General. His long hair dripped over his towel onto the carpet. Sephiroth had just given Reno two warning signs. Number one: he had just called him "dear Reno" which was the sign he wanted to cleave his head off. Two; he had forced out the word "please" which meant Reno's head would be saying goodbye very soon. So, ignoring the towel wrapped around Sephiroth's waist and the silver hair trailing down beneath it, he spoke quietly and tried to remain focused on his terrifying glare without making direct eye contact.

"I found Cloud in the soldier's locker room Sir, thought you might like him back." now was not the time for "Sephy-baby", no matter how irresistible the urge was.

"Where is he now Reno?"

Reno gulped again and stepped back with a deep breath. Sephiroth peered out of his quarters and followed Reno's gaze to the cowering semen splattered boy in the wheelchair. His chin wrinkled.

"I- should be going sir, things 'n all-"

"Reno... would you mind at all explaining to me why THE FUCK HE IS SPLATTERED WITH -"

The red head, valuing his life, fled.

Sephiroth swore violently and hauled Cloud into the room.

"I'll be back in a minute," he growled pulling a pair of leather pants on under the towel and fasting them hurriedly, just managing now to catch any thing. "I AM NOT HAPPY WITH YOU BLONDY!"

The door slammed shut and Cloud burst into tears again.

Calm and collected, Sephiroth took the elevator to Lazard's floor, plunging his sword into the loud speaker when that infuriating elevator music started. Sparks flew around the pace but he was more focused on the task at hand. His towel flew of before he had even reached the elevator.

True enough, Reno was hiding behind the man who supposed to be Sephiroth's boss, or rather hiding under his desk.

"Psst, I'll give you a blow-job if you don't let him kill me!" Reno whispered to the standing man who, most of the time, and now, regarded Reno as no more than a mere annoyance.

"I'm sure whatever you did can't be -"

Lazard began to lie but when he heard the ding of the elevator followed by those slow purposeful clicks of Sephiroth's boots on the floor, even he was promptly silenced. His hand snaked down to the security button under his desk and pressed it repeatedly.

"S-Sephiroth, what brings you here in such a bad mood? You don't have any missions this evening..."

"Cut the small talk. I'm here for one thing and I want you to give me it so I can cook it and eat it's innards. Give me him NOW and I'll leave with minimum fuss, blood and wreckage to your room." The scowl currently decorating Sephiroth's face was enough to cripple the entire Shinra army. At that point twelve of them piled into the room. Sephiroth dropped them in seconds with only the butt of his sword. His sword swung around the room and dew drops danced everywhere.

The finger against the button pressed furiously again until Sephiroth circled the desk and kicked it away. The crouching Turk looked up nervously until a hand grabbed him by the neck and raised him in the air.

Reno wheezed and grabbed the General's wrist trying to pull himself up, his legs swung in a frenzy.

"S-S-Sephy-baby! I d-didn't-" he rasped, the General's grip tightening around his throat. "I didn't do it....t-hey were-"

The General's thumb squeezed against the red head's Adam's apple, his eye blazed furiously and the mako swirled around them like an icy fog. At this point Reno knew he was going to die. He needed to swallow but the thumb in the way prevented it.

"SEPHIROTH!" Lazard barked at him, "PUT HIM DOWN!" He put his hand on Sephiroth's shoulder.

"Lazard." growled the General, not looking at him, his eyes focused on the writhing red head, his voice deeper than usual with his fury, "I suggest you leave before I kill the both of you, you haven't enough soldier's to take me down, and don't you DARE touch me."

Lazard stepped back but another hand tapped his shoulder.

"I TOLD YOU-"

Sephiroth turned to a punch in the face that managed to leave him reeling for a full three seconds but his sword was unsheathed again. He threw the Turk against the wall who choked and spluttered a few minutes, dry retched and flew to the elevator. Overtime or not, he was flying the 'copter home. To hell with that!"

"GENSIS RHAPSODOS! My quarrel lies not with you but Reno-" He tried to break past the whimsical first class Soldier but an arm blocked him.  
"My friend, do you fly away now? To a land -"

"Spare me! I'll allow a punch between friends but I'm not after your precious Lazard-"

Lazard pushed his glasses up aware Sephiroth new he was the caller of security."

"My friend the fates are cruel; and the prey you seek is without your grasp, Thy torment, endure it, for you are beloved by the goddess!"

"You're making it up now."

"Yes...only, my attempts at stalling you are working....what's the problem Seph?" Genesis asked softly with a grin, "Did he cheat at cards again?"

"No....it's not important."

"Not important?" grinned Genesis looking at the bodies on the floor only starting to recover now, "Tell that to these guys." Some of them were already showing heavy bruising, one couldn't even open his swollen eye.

Lazard stood up and walked over.

"Can you wrap this up now? Only, I have matters to attend to, some of us actually do work." His words were ignored but Sephiroth and Genesis did walk to the lift.

"Come," Genesis guided the General by the shoulder, "relax, return to your room, I'll see that Turk is appropriately punished, he's been asking for it more than usual.... don't tell me that cocky rapscallion has actually found a young strumpet to sup his needs?"

"Genesis, the bard in you is taking over again, but I'll go back to my room, I have matters to attend to...what did he do to you?

"Oh, nothing to me, Hojo's gunning him down though...something about his latest grafting experiments with bunny girls..."

"Bunny girls?" laughed Sephiroth. "With Reno-"

"Just asking for trouble isn't it?" joked Genesis. There was a ding that signified Sephiroth had reached his floor. "Adieu friend, and come to the training grounds more often! Angeal and I miss your strength..."

Sephiroth nodded as the doors closed and walked out storming towards his room. Now to deal with the other brat who thought he could deal with his problems by running away. He had no keycard with him but a swift kick opened it easily enough. Cloud hadn't moved from where Sephiroth had left him, afraid of a beating. He had been crying enough though and thinking things too deeply for his brain to cope with. The blond stared up at the silver haired man with no consciousness in his eyes.

"YOU!" Sephiroth said sternly, throwing his sword to the floor with a clatter. Cloud stayed perfectly still save the streaming tears. Maybe he would get tired like the children had and Cloud would be tossed back where they'd found him. The mako stream....he longed to forget.

"Don't you dare wallow there in self pity." Sephiroth hissed. He grabbed the boy and stripped him roughly earning a squeak of fright as he was dragged into the bathroom by the arm and flung into a shower. The water stung him like a thousand of Hojo's syringes piercing every pore of him.

Cloud didn't move though. He didn't care what Sephiroth did to him. Even with muscle power, even in his arms alone, he was just as useless as Sephiroth had told him. If he couldn't hold off the people who wanted to hurt him, how on earth would he find someone who wouldn't run away from him? He actually found himself thinking "this isn't fair" but stopped himself but the words left his lips.

"Stop bubbling. You didn't do what I told you to do. This is your reward. Your arms work well enough, so wash yourself if your so fucking smart." A damp sponge was lobbed at Cloud. It smacked wetly against his head with a wet plop and bounced onto the floor of the shower. Cloud stared at it thinking, saying, doing; nothing. He had goosebumps.

Sephiroth closed the door behind him and left again, remembering his keycard. What to do? He had no idea how to talk to children! He didn't even know how to act in this situation. How to show sympathy or comfort the boy though he didn't even realise it. He may have called it tough love even though he didn't know really when to stop. He needed to take a long walk to calm down. Perhaps Genesis and Angeal would give him a two on one in the training grounds, wind him down a bit.

Fuck knows, he thought, I need it.

Cloud had only ever been hugged three times in his life; only twice of which he was aware of. Hugs were precious things to be given, not asked for. Once was by his mother, twice by Tifa; once during a thunder storm, the other when Cloud said he might return to school. He wasn't about to go asking for one.

Not that he was thinking about it. Cloud continued to soak, still in shock over his ordeal. He didn't understand it but he didn't need to, he was suffering regardless. The water slowly began to turn cold and he was in the shower for five hours before Sephiroth remember he was there and pulled him out. He had fainted dead out.

"At least you can sleep..."

As appealing as the previous idea of training the himself a virile young apprentice was, Sephiroth knew Cloud would never be that strong: mentally or physically.

Sephiroth stroked the boy's freezing arms and put him to bed.

"Tomorrow boy, I promise you will get your mako," he whispered into the boy's ear, "as much as it takes." He turned to his own bed, gritting his eyes and teeth to stop the emotion showing. He wasn't going to cry he wouldn't exactly be laughing when the time came. He had actually grown fond of the little fifteen year old.

The next morning came too fast and Cloud was taken from his bed without being woken. Sephiroth dressed him carefully, quickly and quietly, and before the boy was even awake he was bundled in blankets and carried gently to the wheelchair so as not to wake him. As rough as Sephiroth could be, he was twice as gently as he tried not to wake the sleeping teenager. Once in the chair he pushed him carefully into the lift and wheeled to the lab behind the gym.

"I'm sorry Cloud."

Sephiroth would give him a double dose of the liquid to begin with, followed by single dosages until the brain waves relapsed into theta and then finally into delta waves. Mako was, to be honest, a depressant and it would slow Cloud down until he slipped into a coma. After that, he'd need a machine to stimulate his lungs and eventually, he wouldn't feel anything at all.

The General pulled out a long shining needle and clicked it in place. Then he peeled open the silver foil over the mako tub, pulled the plunger up and drew the liquid into the syringe. Cloud's nose wrinkled, smelling the substance but Sephiroth had his back to him and neglected to see it. The boy's eyes flickered and opened.

"Sephiroth?"

"Blondy-?" For once the General was caught off guard, he had done nothing to wake the boy. He concealed the mako filled hypodermic behind his back.

"Sir...I- smell mako..."

"Don't be stupid boy, mako doesn't have a scent."

"I- it-" Cloud knew better than to argue, if General Sephiroth didn't like mako having a smell he wouldn't mention it again. "Why are we in the mako room sir...if there is no mako?"

"Shut up, I will give you your mako okay, but if anything in the negative occurs, I can assure you, I will NOT be remedying it."

"Th-thank you sir."

"Don't." The General said stiffly. "Give me your hand."

"My hand? But you put it -"

"Must you constantly question me boy? Do as I say."

The boy's hand outstretched and Sephiroth grasped it firmly. Cloud squirmed, his tight grip hurting his wrist. He clenched his teeth, aching for the life stream to pour into him again. The tip of the needle touched the back of his palm and he shuddered.

"Please sir....I- AAAHH!"

The stainless steel penetrated his skin and tears of relief squeezed out through his tightly closed eyes. His hand flexed while the other dared to grasp Sephiroth's sleeve, the pressure forced more of that adored substance into the current of his body. He gasped in bliss yet again, his eyes rolled back in bliss at the stronger dosage.

"More...." he could still not move his legs and the memories of Nibelheim, though vague, were swimming to the surface, he needed them to go away.

Sephiroth obliged, ripping off the seal on another tub. The cupboard was stacked with them, and he grabbed another double dosage, as he saw the previous had no effect on him. The boy moaned in delight with the extra dosage, slipping down into his chair like an addict on a fix. He barely registered the tingling in his feet and legs, telling him that the feeling was returning. He wanted to return to that bliss, the floating, trance like daze that the fountain in Mt. Nibel left him in.

But there wasn't enough, injecting it wasn't enough to send him reeling.

"M...more..." he barely managed to cry out, his grip tightening to the extent that even Sephiroth couldn't bare to watch him, when would his brain slow down. It wasn't the first time Sephiroth had been forced to put a soldier to permanent sleep with mako and, since soldiers usually had more experience with mako than a mere boy, Cloud's resistance perplexed him. And yet, contrary to what was advised, Sephiroth inject a third double dosage.

"Cloud....are you....alright?" The words could not have been said with less interest in the boy's emotions. But what Cloud heard was less a sentence than it was a pineapple. Sephiroth opened the boy's eyes and stared into them. The pupils were dilated so wide there was barely a thin sliver of colour around the edges.

He could smell it now, the mako, but only because the boy seemed to be comprised of it. It was a sweet, almost bitter, gritty smell that was strong enough to taste, he lent in closer to the boy trying to get a stronger whiff; his hair, his skin, the hand he was holding. It was the mako, it had to be, and it was radiating from the boy. It didn't smell like reactor mako though, it smelt like pure mako. He coughed reservedly and was about to step back when he realised, the boy had been in contact before, and it made perfect sense.

"You didn't explain that before! When you were up the mountain....you weren't at the reactor at all were you?"

The lights in the room danced around Cloud's eyes in a way that was everything but nauseating. He tried to stand up, took a few wobbly steps towards the light and swept off his feet, floated to the floor.

To Sephiroth, Cloud staggered to his feet like a drunk person, tripped over them and crashed in a heap, in tears. It was more unnerving by the way Cloud kept giggling.

"More mako..." he asked breathlessly, his voice dripping with it, Sephiroth could smell it on his breath. The mix of pure and refined mako combining together was reacting and causing the chemicals to ooze out of his skin like garlic only in the form of dust. Sephiroth had never seen this before but contained himself, watching and smelling fondly.

"No. No more."

He may as well have been talking to himself. Cloud watched him through half lidded eyes of pleasure. Sephiroth had no idea how the boy had managed to build up such a resistance but it was enviable. He would explain the advantages the boy had when his trip had subsided.


	10. Tension

**A/n**: Apologies for lack of progress. I've had a lot of stuff to deal with. Suffice to say I'll be getting them up quicker. Thanks for staying with it peeps!

**Chapter Ten**

**Tension**

Within days the small blond would have been running circles around Sephiroth, that is, if he were the type to be running around. The morning that he woke to find he could move them, and even put his weight on them, he was so overjoyed that the old Cloud almost seemed to whirl away like water through a plug hole. He would never take advantage of these things again. The muscular freedom, the walking; he knew know how important they could be and now he had a second chance to appreciate it, not many people would ever receive that chance.

"Remarkable." Sephiroth mused as he watched him stand on his feet, staring in disbelief at himself. "It seems that your healing processes are accelerated by mako..." Though the idea was astounding, given that large doses were supposed to drown the body's senses and abilities, it seemed that Cloud genuinely needed the mako to heal and work properly. No wonder Hojo had wanted to study him so badly. Sephiroth began to wonder if it wasn't something to do with the other experiment, the one they had started a full twenty years ago and hadn't quite managed to finish. Perhaps, with the boy's help, they could get it underway again.

"...Thank you... you gave me that mako and saved them! You saved my legs, sir!"

"Indeed I did, now you can start earning your keep for me." Sephiroth demanded. There was no hint in his voice of even considering the word "no" and Cloud released that. He nodded slowly indicating that he was willing to do anything to pay back the man who had saved him from that wretched Hojo and prevented him from living the rest of his life in a wheelchair. He would be eternally grateful to his tall, silver haired hero even if he still wanted to go back to the mako pool.

"Yes, what should I do?" Cloud nodded. "Should I deliver messages? Or...be your training partner? I don't know how to fight yet but whatever I need to do to repay you for the things you have done I will."

"No. Nothing like fighting. At least not for the moment." Said Sephiroth leaning over to open the cupboard, he pulled out a cardboard box and handed it to Cloud. "The first thing I want you to do is to take a parcel to the Turk's on floor** XX**. Hand it directly to Tseng and do NOT let Reno get his grubby paws on it. Go now." He let out a short breath of a laugh at the boy's reasoning but chose to ignore it. Whether or not Sephiroth had saved his legs or his life or his dignity from Hojo, Cloud would be doing what he was told. He was now Sephiroth's property. And that which belonged to him, did as he told them.

Cloud nodded and took the sealed cardboard box in his arms. It was heavy and tied with duct tape and string but he could carry it for a little while, perhaps a good few minutes to the lift and rest until he reached his floor and then some. He heard a clink as he took the box. The contents seemed to be bottles or vials of liquid which explained the heaviness of the box. Already straining under the weight, but determined nonetheless, Cloud had already decided he would complete this task.

"Yes, I'll do it now." He scampered to the door but before he could open it, Sephiroth tripped him up, grabbing the bulky parcel back effortlessly as the boy rolled into the door. Cloud looked up at him worried and a little dazed.

"Aren't you missing something?"

"M-missing something?" Cloud asked and stared up at Sephiroth. He was glaring at him in a way that made Cloud want to hide under the bed.

"Missing something." Sephiroth clarified. Cloud's continuing blank stare only infuriated him further. "I thought I warned you to refer to me as SIR, or GENERAL."

Cloud squeaked at his raised tone. He hadn't even realised he'd omitted the word.

"I'm sorry, really sorry, I forgot, it won't happen again!" Cloud assured him but Sephiroth had already grabbed him by the arm and wrenched him to his feet with it. He continued to twist his wrist back.

"Of course it won't happen again, from now on, it's MASTER to you" Sephiroth hissed over Cloud's wails pulling the boys face closer to his so he could growl into it, "AND FOR THE LOVE OF GAIA TOUGHEN UP WILL YOU! What are you, a little girl? Only a girl would whimper in a manner so pathetic."

Cloud nodded frantically his arm going limp, he would agree to anything so long as it stopped the larger man from snapping his arm off. Sephiroth's flaring anger only intensified as the kid attempted to curl up in defence. His introverted reaction was the opposite of the larger man's intention. He grabbed the boy's throat, hoping to draw out a reaction. Cloud did, flailing around his arms randomly to biff him back. The larger male grabbed his arms and twisted them behind his back pressing him to the wall. Cloud squealed, Sephiroth's sudden outburst at him was unprovoked and Cloud couldn't figure out how to stop it.

"I'll get you the fighting lessons too then." The silver haired one decided, calming slightly. "If you're to be my assistant then you will need to accompany me on missions at some point..."

Cloud tried to be enthusiastic about that despite his cheek being pressed into the wall. Sephiroth loosened his grip a little but Cloud didn't try to move for fear of another uncalled-for assault. The blond felt a warm feeling on his neck followed by warm skin. He froze again; rigid against the wall as he felt what could only be Sephiroth biting against his neck. He gasped for three reasons; fear, pain, and something else. The something else reminded him of the time Hojo had touched him; it reminded him of the two soldiers who had grabbed him in the changing rooms. It scared him and he shook violently.

"Please...d-don't..." he whimpered, his breaking voice muffling into the hard, coldness of the wall.

"Don't WHAT?" Sephiroth growled at his neck before continuing to nip and pull at the boy's tender neck leaving the boy feeling more vulnerable than ever. Neither of them had any idea why he was doing it and even why he hadn't stopped once he realised he was but it would drum the lesson into the boy's brain faster than his erratic heartbeat jutting into his ribcage. His firm tongue dragged across the quickly growing bruise.

"D-Don't, Master!" Cloud squeaked, his nails digging at unyielding wall and Sephiroth chuckled. With a slow, calculated step backward he let go of the smaller blond, but not before he had left his mark. He let the boy peel himself from the wall in his own time and shoved the slightly heavy box back into his shaking arms.

"Tseng, now."

Cloud nodded.

"Yes, Master." He ran out of door and straight into the empty lift as though it was about to leave without him.

What had Sephiroth tried to do to him? He was scared. Why did everyone keep trying to touch him? Why was his neck hurting now? He pressed a hesitant hand to it and wiped the wet saliva from him. Though he couldn't see the bruising, he could certainly feel it.

With his heartbeat only letting up a little he pressed the correct buttons for the floor he wanted and tried to avoid the sparks from the speaker at the side of the elevator. It had been damaged and he warily thought how dangerous it could be, not that he actually knew what it was.

The slow ride down was relaxing despite the lack of "elevator music" and when he reached the desired floor a particularly mischievous red-head grinned down at him. Cloud grimaced.

"HEY THERE SPIKEY!" Reno said in his usual quiet calm voice which made Cloud want to be there so much. "What you got there?"

"A present for Tseng..." Cloud mumbled. He didn't want Reno to know it wasn't for him.

"I'll take it to him kiddo, just hand it over."

Cloud shook his head. It was more than his life was worth.

"Come on yo, don't you trust me?"

Cloud shook his head again. Of course he didn't! This was Reno.

"Hey! After everything I've done for you? Come on, give it over, I won't open it! I'm heading there anyway, so I won't be going out of my way."

Cloud considered. It would get good points from his Master if he could finish his delivery in record time. He stared down at the box. It couldn't be that precious. He wouldn't be the one taking it to Tseng if it was worth that much. As he was thinking about possibly maybe considering thinking about giving Reno the box he was tackled to the ground and the box wrestled from his hands. Everyone in the large hallway continued doing what they were doing. Some days it was best to just ignore Reno, today was one of those days.

"NO! Sephiroth said you weren't to get it!" Cloud screamed from his position on the floor. The words were out before he even realised it and Reno's grin widened.

"Fantastic, yo! Tell him thanks!" the redhead called straight off to his room to open it. "By the way, I love what Sephy-baby's done to your neck, it's very...interesting!" He waved and ran off with the box leaving Cloud heartbroken on the floor on the verge of tears. Sephiroth would kill him... if he wasn't happy with Cloud forgetting to call him "sir" what would he do if he lost his box of whatever it was for Tseng. Pulling himself together he scraped himself from the floor and returned to the "Sephy-baby's" room.

"That was quick. Reno must have been waiting for you."

Cloud's eyes widened in fear at those words, Sephiroth walked him coldly from the windowsill.

"How did you-?"

"Do you honestly think that there are things in this building that I do not know about? More to the point, I gave that box to you with the intention that the bothersome creature should end up with it. If I had been important, I would have delivered it myself. I am not stupid enough to entrust a mere child with any life threatening objects in the absence of medical, physical or communications training. Sending you on an important mission with Reno running around is like sending a kitten with a rabbit in its mouth to go play with a Rottweiler!" He chuckled returning his gaze to the window. It would serve the redhead right.

The words wounded Cloud though he tried not to show it.

"Master..." he tried, "D-does that mean I finished my task or not?"

Sephiroth looked around at him and thought about it. He wasn't sure. Though Sephiroth had intended on the boy getting the parcel to Reno he had told him to give it to Tseng. This meant his task was incomplete but technically it was.

"I'll say for sake of argument, that you completed your task...I'm in a good mood, do you want some mako as a reward?"

Cloud's eyes danced and his mouth gaped in delight. He nodded, speechless.

Sephiroth pulled a set of keys from his leathers and used one to unlock the cabinet beneath the long windowsill. From his position, Cloud could see that it had been fully stocked with copious amounts of the swirling aquamarine mist.

"Come on then, unless you don't want it boy?"

Cloud nearly dived at Sephiroth's knees, tilting his head forward so the larger man could reach his neck but, confused, he felt himself lifted up into Sephiroth's lap before the man even pierced the silver foil with the syringe.

He could smell the mako already. It was fresh, fresher than previous doses. These had probably been very recently collected and Cloud thought they were possibly just as concentrated as the naturally produced kind. He inhaled the scent deeply, his eyes closing in bliss as it caught in his throat.

He gripped Sephiroth's arm in anticipation as the other hand was grasped and his sleeve pushed back. He took a quick, deep breath and the long silver proboscis punctured the skin with an inaudible pop. The liquid flowed into him and he clung to the general, moaning deeply. Sephiroth smirked. The dosage of the mako in the gym was nothing compared to what he was hoarding. This stuff was stronger than half of the regular grunts in the entire Shinra army. The strength was enough to make Sephiroth wrinkle his nose when he tried to inhale it. But Cloud was shuddering and gripping at him while "under the influence".

He took the boy's hand in his and unhooked each finger from his arm but the boy sunk and he had to catch him before he fell.

"Sephiroth..." the boy drooled, clinging to his neck, "thank you."

"Master." He corrected and dared himself to look at the boy's neck. The mark he'd left was ripe and already slightly bruised. At least the Soldiers who'd dared to touch his property would know that if they touched him again they would suffer. He ran his finger over the mark, Cloud jolted. The long smirk on the General's face widened.

"M...asst...er," Cloud burbled but it was nothing more than unconscious echolalia. The finger pressed down against the love bite for a second time and Cloud's head lolled back. There was another soft moan.

"I'm guess you're hypersensitive when you have Mako in your veins boy?" Sephiroth said calmly, his grin uncurled into a straight face and he pushed the boy from his knee. Cloud slid down into a heap as his Master stood to relock the cabinet. The jingling keys returned inside his leather outfit. Cloud remained on the floor, his eyes rolling back and giggling slightly.

"I'll leave you to enjoy the ride, I have to go visit Reno." The grin returned and he laughed harshly.


	11. Experimental Procedures

**A/N: **Back again with another chapter I hope you like. We're getting closer to the end now...keep with it and please review. I love reviews They make me write more

**Chapter Eleven**

**Experimental Procedures**

"General, Sir, if I could have a word?"

"As long as it's a quick one. I'm busy."

"Yes, well, Although it was kind of you to take disciplining... less tactful members of us Turks into your own hands, I would be truly grateful if you would leave it to me, given I'm head of that department. I know that President Shinra has given you permission to use your own discretion for such situations but leaving Reno in that state was less than considerate of you- I'm not saying that we're not grateful for saving us the bother, but...you weren't the one who found him in that situation... it wasn't the best of circumstances to-"

"I don't give a shit what you think I should do when it comes to discipline Tseng, but if – faster boy, even a guard hound puppy would have already killed you about four times by now!- you're going to let him away with murder, I'm the one who's going to have to deal with it!"

"It wasn't murder, it-"

"Rape then and I did ask for the boy to take the parcel straight to you! It was his fault for taking something that wasn't intended for him."

The gym was deserted. Or at least, it was apart from Tseng; head of the Turk's division, Sephiroth; General of the elite army, and Cloud; Sephiroth's "pet". The gym hadn't been specifically block for these three males but circumstances had lead to everyone vacated the area when the intimidating man with the fantastic body entered the room. It was impolite to stare, was the excuse.

Everyone knew that Sephiroth was a slave driver. If you were on the treadmill doing thirty minutes, he would make you do another thirty. "If you can do it once, you can do it again." And this meant that everyone suddenly needed to shower or fold their uniforms at exactly the same time. This suited Sephiroth fine. It meant he would have the whole place to himself, or in this case, train the boy. He hadn't counted on Tseng being around.

"You know fine well Reno wasn't responsible for that event, you were only doing it to satisfy your own sadistic pleasure, the fact that it seemed to actually have an effect on him is miraculous, astounding and a very lucky coincidence. Reno was only doing what Reno does best, and you took advantage of that!"

Sephiroth walked over to the shorter, Asian man. Although still impressively tall, he was about a head shorter than Sephiroth but he was not intimidated in the least. He watched Sephiroth as coldly as Sephiroth did to him.

"So what if I did Tseng? What exactly did you plan to do about it?"

"I'm sure President Shinra might have a thing to say about your actions."

"That fat fuck wouldn't dare approach me unless his millions were at risk; you know he doesn't care what goes on behind the scenes unless it costs him money."

"Don't fight..." Cloud said quietly from beside Sephiroth. He was acting a lot braver than he currently felt. He was so quiet however, that had he not been pulling at the General's arm, he probably wouldn't even have registered the boy making any noise at all. The silver haired man pushed him from his arm with enough force for him to tumble to the floor.

"Back to training boy! The treadmill; start running. NOW!" he said with enough frustration in his tone that Cloud did so immediately, red with embarrassment.

Tseng ignored the blond. He was none of his concern; he was supposed to be settling matters between the General and the Turks, the boy was a trifling inconvenience.

"I expect you to apologise to Reno, Sephiroth. The only thing worse than having Reno around is not having him around to pilot the helicopter."

Sephiroth considered. Not having him around was a blessing with a drawback. If he wasn't there to pilot the plane, it would cripple the productiveness of future operations, but he still had no intentions of going to apologise.

"So, I'm expected to believe that Reno willingly told you exactly what happened to him?"

"There are no secret held from the Turks Sephiroth, only BY the Turks, and he didn't need to tell me anything! I _found_ him. You gave him mislabelled aphrodisiacs that were confiscated from the evidence room and tied him to the radiator! What in Gaia's name –?"

"He was a sexual deviant, and I saw fit to punish him in a manner befitting. Let me guess, he sent you to me to make me say sorry? He was being bullied and went to Mummy to sort it all out with the big kids."

"No. I am telling you to."

Cloud's feet pound against the treadmill, which had been preset to a heavy incline. His limbs ached, he was shaking from overworked muscles and he really needed a drink. He had no idea what an aphrodisiac was but if it was one of the bottles of liquids from the box Reno had stolen and it was drinkable, then he wanted one to quench his thirst. Panting heavily, he persisted; he didn't want to upset Sephiroth any more than Tseng was succeeding in doing.

Sephiroth raised a questioning eyebrow at Tseng.

"No-one has ever made me do something I did not wish to do, who do you think you are to demand _anything_ from me?"

"I think I am the one who controls your pay check starting next month!"

"Nonsense." Sephiroth scoffed. Everyone knew that Sephiroth didn't get pay checks. Everything he needed or bought was automatically charged straight to the company, everything from his expensive hand crèmes and moisturisers to his custom made leather jackets was added right to Shinra's bill. It had always been that way.

"Not any more. As of next month, your salary comes out of the Turk's expenses. Of course, our budget will be increased accordingly but who is in charge of it? I am. You really need to start going to the meetings Sephiroth."

"You bastard!" Sephiroth growled and grabbed Tseng by the collar. He felt a cold metal against his chest. Within seconds Tseng had reached for his gun and now had it pressed against him.

"Sephiroth, calm yourself, it was Hojo's idea. You do remember the experiment you and he brought back into effect a few months ago? He needed to divert funds from your account to continue them and since you weren't there to argue against it...well, by mixing your "allowance" to put it bluntly, with ours, he was able to gain enough to bring it back accordingly..."

"How sneaky of him," Sephiroth mused. Hojo wouldn't have dared bring that up while Sephiroth was there. He released his grip on the now creased shirt. Tseng brushed himself off.

"Why are you telling me about this? Surely it's top secret then?" Sephiroth was glad he now knew what that psychotic scientist was up to. He had known before but didn't realised he was trying to siphon money from him. But now he was worried about how easily Tseng had parted with the information, how much did he know?

"Hojo had already told us about your involvement Sephiroth, and I like I said, you should be at the meetings."

Still, as calmly as he had arrived, Tseng walked out of the gym. Sephiroth turned to Cloud.

"Boy. Move."

For the last however long, Cloud had been running full pelt on the treadmill and, unable to stand now, Sephiroth dragged him back to the room.

Cloud didn't know what was happening. All he knew was that Sephiroth wasn't happy at something Hojo had done and that was a reason to stand clear. However, since he was the one currently dragging Cloud back to the room it was slightly impossible at this moment in time. When they reached it, Cloud was thrown onto the bed while Sephiroth rooted around for Masamune.

"Sephiroth, please, what's going on?"

Sephiroth paused, considering whether or not to punish Cloud before or after he sliced Hojo's head off. Hooking his sword belt under his leather coat, he pulled the sword out at pointed it at Cloud.

"What did you say?"

"M-Master!" Cloud gasped, realising his mistake and scrambling back towards the headboard.

"That's not what you said." He walked back towards the bed and the point of the blade pressed up against his chin. Cloud whimpered. "What did I tell you? You are to call me MASTER now." He dropped the blade as he cornered the boy and grabbed him by the throat.

Cloud found himself accidently staring straight into Sephiroth's cruel aquamarine eyes. There was no sympathy in those eyes, only fury, which was currently being misdirected at him.

"I'm s-sorry, Master!" Cloud choked through tight fingers, word catching in his throat. "Master...pl-please...I didn't mean to...Master, y-you said to Hojo...you'd...not l-let him kill me...you're angry...at him...not me!"

His pleading last words struck a note and he released the boy who fell to a heap on the bed, deep red marks on his neck where the General had dug his nails in.

"Master...y-you're hurting me lately...w-why d-do you hate me?"

It wasn't that Cloud wasn't used to being hated. It was that he was sick of not wondering why, he needed to know, what was it about him that made him so unworthy to be treated as fairly as he had been at...that house...there was a family once; a family who had looked after him, or had that been a dream. He ransacked his brain but he couldn't put a face or a name to them. It was just a feeling; a feeling that probably wasn't real.

"I do not hate you boy, you are my property, I will treat you as I like." And to prove his point, he scooped up the shaking boy and stood him up to look at him. He pinned him against the wall.

"You will call me Master because you belong to me, failure to call me Master means you are being ungrateful for everything I've done for you, if I had left you with Hojo, you would be dead, a decaying corpse rotting away in his laboratory or better yet, an immovable husk, slowly maddening lying there, vacant, just like how I found you."

Cloud tried not to break into tears but couldn't help himself, for the first time since he could remember, he was crying and it wasn't his father causing it. Not that he could even remember him at this point, the mako having cleansed his system of everything before Shinra.

"Sometimes, I wish I was dead, Master..." he allowed himself to mutter, to realise: "it isn't fair!"

Sephiroth scowled at him. He was a wretched, pitiable sight.

"Grow up, this second. Life isn't fair! And the second you realised that the better," he drew nearer to Cloud who unconsciously shook when he approached him. His hand grasped his chin again but this time it was for a cruel kiss. His lips smashed against the boy's with fury and within seconds, his tongue was in Cloud's mouth. He didn't know what to do so he let him, his own tongue motionless at the floor of his mouth, his eyes, cross eyed, stared back at four closed eyelids. The General's tongue flicked against Cloud's dormant one, trying to coax some life into it to no avail so he pulled back, defeated for now.

"You are mine." He told him, his hand still holding Cloud's chin. "As such; I don't not ever want to hear you talk like that again do you understand me boy?"

"Yes Master!"

"Then kiss me properly."

"K-kiss you Master?" He hadn't encountered that word before.

"Yes. What I did to you, return it."

Cloud went to copy Sephiroth, in his haste to obey he all but head butted the General who pinned him against the bed, infuriated.

"You're trying my patience," he whispered with a growl and kissed the boy's lips again; softer this time. He took his time now, his tongue flicked Cloud's bottom lip; it quivered nervously beneath his onslaught.

"Open your mouth," he told him before returning to lick the boy's lips; bottom then top then, grinning at Cloud's mewling whimpers, pressed his tongue against his.

Cloud liked. The feeling gave him a buzz so great that he clung to Sephiroth, his arms bravely reaching up to lock around him and pull him closer. The kisses trailed down his neck, getting rougher as they did. When teeth found the previously made hickey still lingering on Cloud's neck, Cloud's bitten nails bit into the leather of Sephiroth's coat. The General bit it, softly, and pulled it, he sucked the bruise, making it bigger and flicked the flesh caught between his teeth with the very tip of his tongue.

"Master!" Cloud squealed in both pain and delight. Butterflies danced in his stomach and cart wheeled in his throat.

When the bruises started creeping up the boy's jaw, Sephiroth peeled Cloud's hand from around him and sat up. Cloud remained half-dazed on the bed. His eyes closed and his chest panting.

Sephiroth considered his options. Either he could take the childlike creature with the fantastic vocal chords now...with his delicate, milky skin that bruised so beautifully and so easily...with his damnable hair...He shook himself mentally.

Or he could run the point of his blade through Hojo's neck and out the other side until every single drop of his blood dripped down every inch of his white lab coat and he released his experiments to eat the evidence.

He looked at the boy again. He was so pure, purer than he'd thought. It was rare to find such a person these days, particularly around Shinra. The boy would keep, but Hojo... he would enjoy his pain first.

"Cloud," He said suddenly, and Cloud's eyes snapped open. "I'm going out again to deal with a few minor problems. You will remain here in that spot till I return, understand?" His voice had a deep growl in it that made Cloud's toes curl for reasons he could not understand. Grabbing his discarded sword from the floor with a clink, Sephiroth headed towards the door leaving Cloud panicking over why his trousers were suddenly too tight.


	12. Results

**A/n:** Yeah, I'm aware that I'm a bit erratic with my chapters but...I'm trying. My apologies...

**Chapter Twelve**

**Results**

The specimen's wails of pain echoed throughout the laboratory. For all within earshot, it was like listening to the sound of all the demons in hell at once. Hojo however, had grown accustomed to his experiments complaining and raised the dosage of the muscle relaxant, the screams died down to muffled wails which were still eerie and unlike anything human or animal that any normal person would probably ever hear throughout his or her lifetime.

"Much better, I can concentrate now. I don't have your pathetic whining to distract me."

"HOJO!" Sephiroth's voice echoed around the room leaving his whereabouts untraceable.

"Bugger. I was nearly getting somewhere."

The scientist dropped the syringe on the nearby table and backed away from the metal bars. Immediately he darted to the power switch and the cage crackled with electricity. Within the cage, gurgling in pain and loaded with muscle relaxant, the creature still managed to shuffle slowly away from the bars. It had learned that crackling bars mean pain, it did not like pain.

Hojo slowly and carefully peeled off the residue thick rubber gloves he was using whilst seeing to the specimen, before attempting to leave the room.

His exit was blocked by a silver haired General who glared at him before storming over and looming over the only slighter shorter older male. Masamune glinted in the light.

"Hojo, you vile, demented, old, psychotic sack of-"

"Sephiroth...I am in the middle of an important experiment! A current breakthrough! Just look at this creature!"

"I'm not in the mood for your pathetic distractions." The unsheathed sword sliced through the air in evidence of this and Hojo found himself backing away uneasily. "I want to know what is so important as to have my budget decreased so rapidly."

"Ah, it's about the money, that's what I want to show you! Look at it."

Sephiroth scowled but directed his attention to the cage in the middle of the room. Huge black bug eyes stared back at him from a human face. Were Sephiroth the nauseous type he would have thrown up at this sight. It looked like a mako monster with a twist. The skin was violent shades of purple and pink, as though it had been ripped from it and reattached inside out. The eyes were black, the pupils all but eclipsing the irises and in its current state, half dazing on the effects of the drugs from Hojo's laboratory of decadence and torture, it actually looked like it should be been shot out of its misery at birth.

Sephiroth stared at it with a look of disgust and disinterest.

"This is it? This is years of planning, tens of thousands of gil and the entire cause of half of Shinra's last budget cut?" Sephiroth looked as though he could murder Hojo and Hojo, knowing this very well, quickly intervened.

"Look closer my boy! Closer! The mako!"

With the last of his patience, Sephiroth crouched down and glared at the creature. It growled weakly. Sephiroth's face was blank until... he could see it! Mako was oozing out of its pores similar to the way it had with Cloud. He involuntarily gasped.

"EXPOSURE!" He cried out, momentarily losing his calm exterior and rising to his feet again. He grabbed Hojo's shoulders uncharacteristically and paced the room. "RIGHT YOU MAD BASTARD! Listen to me! Get a pen and paper if you have to, Shinra won't need to worry about five thousand gil hand crème...EXPOSURE! From birth, from a young age...Hojo, do you hear me? Let the creatures adjust to extreme levels of pure mako...and they begin to produce it! There body creates it! NEEDS IT!"

Hojo had indeed grabbed a pen and paper if the hopes that his genius son had experience a breakthrough just like he did but know he had no idea.

"Sephiroth, explain."

"Oh you idiot! Cloud, the boy, the cripple, he...when he is introduced to manufactured mako! He oozes copious amounts of natural mako out his pores like this one- EXPOSURE! You exposed this one to mako, I presume?"

"Y...es...over a long period of time though...but first I had to-"

"EXACTLY! They are same DNA, so to make this work on a grand scale..."

"WE NEED TO BREED THEM!" They both finished in unison. Sephiroth had never looked so happy.

"Yes..." Hojo said slowly, the insanity in his voice growing. "And give the first generation mako till they scream and burst with it...but not too quickly...too quickly...they..." Hojo grinned. "They pop..." he laughed louder. "The mind curls inwards and they stop using words...real words...it would be much better than this loud noisy failure...yes...then we get the first generation, breed it together and create more concentrated...more and more and then we can- oh the limits...there are none!"

Hojo was ecstatic at the new revelations.

"But how do we create these offspring? Do we use human or monster females? And how do we harness the produced mako?"

Hojo paused.

"I'll get to it!" He reached out and knocked a now rendered useless experiment from the table. The test tubes clinked and he reached around for empty ones like an excited child with a new toy.

"I told you I was better looking after the boy!" Sephiroth said smugly; his plans were all coming to fruition. "You foolish imbecile, you would have killed him and we'd never have learned...by Gaia, we pure mako he creates after manufactured quantities are pumped into him...the strength...he all but filters it!"

"Yes, yes, now leave, you've said enough! I have important things to do."

Sephiroth chuckled and left. He was pleased now. After such a scientific breakthrough there was nothing that could ruin his good mood. Nothing non-Turk anyway. He had almost forgotten about Cloud and upon returning to his room and finding the boy still there, he actually managed to smile at him.

"Cloud," he said softly, a worrying sign, "Come to me boy."

Cloud couldn't move fast enough.

"There has been a...certain situation in other areas of Shinra...but I need you to tell me...how long have you been running around playing wild child through the heather and mako fields?"

Cloud flinched and he didn't know why.

"I..as long as I...can remember..." he muttered. "Ever since..I..before..." He didn't know. The Mako in his system had drained the memories out of him. He barely remembered his life before meeting Sephiroth. This master had looked after him so much; he owed his life to him.

"That's no good enough. Tell me now."

"I...really...don't know, Master." Cloud insisted, looking up at the unrelenting General. His nervous look was returned with a frown and a hand around his neck.

"When I ask you something. You answer me with Master and you tell me what I want to hear understand?"

"B-but I did Master...as much as I could."

"DO NOT correct me boy, it's more than your life is worth."

But it wasn't. Not now. Now that the boy could be used for something, now that he was finally useful, Sephiroth couldn't be so liberal with his punishments. He let go of the boy again and walked to the coat stand to put his jacket on it. He kicked off his boots and kicked them to the side and unhooked his chest plate putting it down on the chest of drawers near the window. Cloud tried not to giggle at the sight of him in trousers and socks. Cloud had never seen them before.

Sephiroth caught him staring as he threw himself down on his bed, his arms crossing behind his head.

"Something caught your interest boy?"

"Your...feet..."

"My feet? What's wrong with my feet?"

"There's...something on them...those white slip-on things...Master." he added quickly but still confused.

"My...socks?" Sephiroth sat up and looked at them. He peeled them off to get a better look. There was nothing wrong with his socks. "What about them?"

"They...socks?"

Now Sephiroth was confused. Surely he had remembered to buy the boy socks, it was as obvious as when he had bought him underpants and his other outfits. Surely? He stood up and and hauled upon the drawers he'd set for the boy. Underpants, vests even, several purple jumpers, a black shirt, two white shirts around a size too big (it had been the smallest size he could find), black jeans, and two pairs of Shinra standard trousers, and one very small belt. No socks.

"Why the hell don't you have socks?"

"I don't know Sir, what are they for Master?"

Sephiroth walked over to him and yanked off his boots so hard he pulled Cloud from his feet. His head barely missed the floor. Sephiroth wrinkled his nose at the smell.

"Go wash your feet now."

Cloud did as he was told while Sephiroth picked up the phone and dialed the number for the head office.

"President Shinra...how lovely...yes...no, I will phone you when I want to...no I do not particularly care that you are in a meeting...with Wutai huh? Tell him Sephiroth says hi and where does he want his daughter buried...no, I will not...okay, shut the fuck up old man, I need you to get me socks...from the looks of it size 3...but most likely size five to seven...yes I am fully aware that reception would- no...yes, so at least one black pair, as many white pairs as possible and that'll be all...no no of course not, wait until the end of the month...YES NOW YOU FAT BALDING IDIOT!"

Thus, Sephiroth slammed the phone down.

Cloud was just leaving his hiding place in the bathroom when a small knock on the door woke the General from his daydream. He stood up slowly and, in his own time approached the door. He willed the person on the other side to knock again just so he had reason to complain about their impatience when he finally reached it.

"Mister Sephiroth!" Screeched a voice than Sephiroth immediately did not like. It belonged to a girl; the first problem, who held a bright pink shopping bag in her arms; two, and held her long blonde hair back in two ponytails either side of her head.

"Who let you up here?"

"I work here!"

"Yuhuh...sure you do, now I'll only ask you one more time; who let you up here?"

"Will you do something bad if I don't answer?" The girl was all but jumping up and down on the spot with the excitement in her eyes.

Sephiroth did not like this, especially when she sneaked past him into his room and looked around. She caught him by surprise as she wasn't exactly the smallest of young women. She could have been anywhere between eighteen to twenty-four and Sephiroth didn't want to grab her in case he hurt her.

"What is your name my dear?" Sephiroth asked in his most put on voice, hoping to rush things along by being sweet to the girl.

"Elena! I'm here as a new recruit of the Turks! Turns out that- what's that look for?"

Sephiroth was now grinning.

"Go on..."

"Well...I got sent to buy socks for you! President Shinra requested me! Me! The new girl! And I thought...right well-" she turned towards the beds and threw the contents of the bright pink bag on the bed and finally noticed Cloud.

"HI! Are you like...Sephiroth's...oh my...you're his boyfriend right?" This time the girl did squeak, "That is so awesome! I've been your fan forever Sephiroth, I got into Shinra and I- I-"

"You know, that is lovely...really lovely, in fact, Cloud, why don't you keep Elaine company while I make a quick phone call hmm?"

It was not a request. The silver haired man stood up and left the room quickly. He kicked open next door's door and burst into Zack's room. The television was on and-

"Zack...what are you watching?"

"SEPHIROTH? DON'T YOU KNOCK?"

"No. And I'm using your phone."

"Yeah sure, just break into my room during my "me time", steal my phone, can you at least let me turn the volume down before you use the phone, hey Seph!"

Sephiroth put his hand up to signal him to be quiet.

"Yes, Tseng, is that you? Yes, you're hilarious aren't you! Now get her OUT of my room."

And yet again, Sephiroth slammed the phone down.

"Move over Zack."

"What?"

"I said move over. I'm not leaving here until the psychotic fan-girl is out of my room. Turn the volume up, I love this bit."

"But you-"

"I'm staying. Here."

"...I'll put something else on."

"I told you to turn it up."

"..."

Meanwhile Elena was not happy.

"It's your fault he's not coming back. I would have made him happy,"

Cloud backed up against the window.

"You want to make him happy? Well, he likes it when you give him back rubs..."

"Really..." She sat down. "Tell me more."

"Um...he secretly likes kittens but he doesn't want anyone to know about it because he used to love the Shinra cat, but he got accidentally burned by a firaga ball when he went onto the training field when Sephiroth was fourteen...I don't know how I know that.."

Zack couldn't have been more glad when Tseng arrived. In fact, mostly everyone was glad when Tseng arrived, Sephiroth also. The only one who wasn't was Elena who had to be sedated and slung over Tseng's shoulder. Sadly though, Sephiroth's joy at having Hojo finally do something right, had dissipated.

"Thank you for that," The silver haired man said sarcastically, his voice dripping with malice at this point, "I will remember that next time you need a favour or you send for someone to help you with the brawling on your mundane missions."

"I'm sure you will...and I never realised you had hairy toes Seph!"

The knuckles on Sephiroth's clenched fists turned slowly white.


	13. Hazzard a Gas

**Chapter Thirteen**

**Hazzard a Gas**

"Master, I'm scared,"

"Shut up and sit still."

"B-but I-"

"Shut up."

Cloud had never thought for a second that he would be back in that dank dungeon-like laboratory again. It was just as dreary and bleak as before only the absence had blocked out half the horrendous memories of it. Now everything was returning. Once again, he could hear the moaning whine of the experiments, the bubbling and creaking of the experiments, and his old tormentor, Hojo, stood in front of him, sizing him up. The only thing that stopped him from panicking was the fact that Sephiroth was, with his arms neatly folded, supervising nearby, while he was being strapped into the scariest looking metal contraption Cloud had ever seen.

It was relatively crude. What might have started as an electric chair had an extractor fan welded on which had tubes attached. If the state penitentiary had wanted to suck the very soul out of their electrocuted victims, the device they would use might have looked somewhat similar.

Hojo tightened the straps around Cloud's neck and wrists and attached drips into Cloud's wrists just to "make sure". It was for "the boy's safety" after all. He chuckled to himself as he busied himself about; checking Gaia only knew what behind the chair. The electrics and the collecting device needed tweaking, but this was only the first, test, run. Things could be adapted.

Cloud whimpered again and wriggled, he wanted to be back in bed, snuggled between the sheets with his Master, asleep. He'd barely opened his eyes this morning to be yanked out of bed and as good as hauled into this weird machine in his undies. Sephiroth himself never even woke this early on a non-practice day, why should today be any different?

"This had better work you convoluted, withered old troll."

"It should, I primed it last night, and set everything –"

Cloud cut him off with a well-timed yawn. Hojo frowned at being interrupted. Early mornings disagreed with the boy and his eyes drooped. Sephiroth, seeing the boy's interest was clearly elsewhere decided to start the experiment before he truly did fall back to sleep.

"Cloud, I have mako for you if you decide you want to help us."

Cloud's eyes shot up and his neck whirled around in search of the mako. They settled on a large, white wood cabinet with a glass front where Hojo kept his reactants and chemicals then returned to Sephiroth who nodded.

"I'll help Master!"

"Good boy" Sephiroth said, a smile almost appearing on his face, his boots clicked on the floor, and the echo bounced off the walls as he walked calmly over to fetch the necessary equipment. Now excited, Cloud grinned, his bounds momentarily forgotten at the promise of his precious addiction being fed. He leaned forward in his seat. He was quickly reprimanded again by Hojo who shoved him back into the icy metal of chair which sent a shock of cold down his naked back.

"SIT STILL," he snarled, threatening him with a syringe of sedative in his right hand. "I shouldn't need to tell you after this amount of time boy."

"Hojo, do what you need to do and hop to it." Sephiroth hissed, returning, and literally shoving Hojo away from his "pet". Cloud grinned and Sephiroth repressed a snicker at Cloud's face.

As the old scientist went to turn on the machine, Sephiroth broke open the seal on a fresh batch of concentrate mako. The bitter scent went straight for Cloud's nose and he swooned, his mouth salivating at the promise of more mako in his veins. He subconsciously licked his lips and Sephiroth punctured his arm with the needle. It took another bottle before Cloud swooned as he had before but almost immediately the reaction took place and an almost pinky hue seemed to emanate from the oblivious boy. Hojo clicked on the machine and a loud motor kicked into action.

At first, the whirring worried him, but after a few seconds, and a boot upon his foot, Cloud was silenced, and another dosage of the mako injected into him. He swooned forward again, now too dizzy to care what "whirring" meant.

Sephiroth lifted the boy's head and gazed into the glazed over eyes. He put down the syringe and bottles onto the table and used the other hand to snap his fingers. The boy was completely out of it. He pressed his lips harshly against the Cloud's neck and bit down, a cool whine wheezed from the boy's mouth. He bit harder. Cloud mewled; his heightened senses bringing him to a subconscious state. Sephiroth continued the manipulations while Hojo watched the pink swirling mist; a result of natural and manufactured mako, mass and thicken in the vacuum as it was sucked inside the machine and oozed out of the boy's pores.

The bitter scent of the mako softened into a sweet, tingly moisture that clung in the air and left even Sephiroth reeling in the dizziness it left him. He steadied himself with one hand on the chair and, as gracefully as he could muster, motioned to Hojo that the machine wasn't working.

"Lies. It's fine. The boy's generating more mako than the machine can suck up. If you give me a few days, I can create something that might suck the juice straight out of him-"

"Do it now." Sephiroth cooed, the mixture already turning his composure to mush. He needed to sit down. He was used to high doses of mako, but this, this was something else entirely. "Hojo, you decrepit codger, was it this? This isn't mako!"

"No…" Hojo confirmed and tightened a paper gas mask about his nose and mouth, offering one to Sephiroth who batted it away. "It's a strange mixture, it's not materia; the solid form, and it's not mako; the liquid form, it's another state; a gas. There's no name for it as yet. But the curious thing is, the more condensed the state, the stronger the effect- this is…a gas, lighter than the mako and yet it's chokingly dense." He inadvertently coughed to prove this point, just as Sephiroth passed out on the floor. Within seconds, Hojo followed suit.

.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-..-.-.-..-..-

"He could be likened to a skunk," Sephiroth said cruelly, an icepack pressed to his forehead where he'd smacked it against the floor. Not that he would admit it and, of course, the surveillance cameras were lying. Reno tilted his head, confused.

"Wait dude, wait yo, wait! Get to the part where you pass out!" He laughed loudly. Sephiroth snarled and swiped at him, he jumped back out of the way.

"Reno, why the hell am I even speaking to you?"

"Because you love me?"

"You are inches from death…" Sephiroth warned. "Anyway, watch the brat while I head up for another serum. Hojo's healing tactics might be crude but they work. And for the sake of Shinra, DO NOT give him any mako."

Reno grinned and walked into Sephiroth's front room. Cloud was quietly staring out of the window and eating coco pops. He glanced around at Reno and continued munching, milk dribbling down his chin. The staring contest lasted a few seconds before Reno spoke.

"So…"

Slow munch. More milk dribbled down Cloud's face and he wiped it with his bare forearm.

"So, I hear that someone has been letting out some real chronic gas yo…"

Munch.

"Master says I needn't be ashamed." Munch munch. Reno laughed heartily.

"So, does "Master" let you watch porn?"

Munch Munch.

"…"

"Where is Sephiroth?"

"Treating the concussion you gave him?"

"…I got socks. Want to see them?"

**Authoress' note: Hazzard a Guess? Gettit? Haha I'm funny ….yeah I'm not even gonna COMMENT on how late this chapter is. -.-**


	14. Caught in the System

**Authoressess Note: Okay! Here we go! Chapter Fourteen, I appear to have the energy to write again. Prepare for another chapter soon. I promise. Really. Just review and don't leave me readers, thank you those who've waited so long, your patience WILL be rewarded! (I hope…)**

**Chapter Fourteen**

**Caught in the System**

So they built a bigger machine, one that Cloud could be incased in; a small domed capsule that syphoned out the mako into large pistons where they could be stored and wouldn't leak out of the sides and infect the lungs of a Sephiroth he didn't appreciate being gassed. Hojo reckoned that with enough Cloud's around they might even be able to run Shinra off them efficiently. But that begged the question, where was that energy going to come from? Would Cloud be eating more? Sephiroth did notice an increase in Cloud's appetite, but he felt that was merely because he was less afraid of Shinra. In all aspects, Cloud did feel that Shinra was more of a home to him, especially with Sephiroth looking after him so well.

"Damnit all boy, for all I feed you and all I train you, can't you stop swinging that sword like a bat and actually wield it?"

"Sorry, Master, I'm trying, it's heavy!"

"That would be the point you intolerable nuisance. The point is to use it to fend off attackers, with a good club to the face, guts or- NO! Had I wanted you to throw it I'd have brought a boomerang, fetch it. NOW!"

Cloud scampered after it, his awkwardness abundant while Sephiroth peered after him and leant his weight on his sword arm. By the time Cloud returned, the patience of the silver haired general was increasingly diminished. He grabbed the boy by the arm and swung him to the ground. Half winded Cloud peered up, wondering what warranted the assault this time.

"Master?"

"I leave, to lead another assault on Wutai, in under two weeks, and you are not fit to fend for yourself here nor useful enough to even consider me dragging you along with me. Now, do you know where that leaves me?"

Cloud shook his head. Sephiroth's cold eyes dug into him and the small blond knew the temper was starting to appear. The thin silver eyebrows curled downwards.

"Would you like to stay here boy? Helpless? With Hojo? That wretched rat of a hunchback would have you slaughtered quicker than you could kill yourself – an impressive feat might I add – and failing that, I could keep you with Reno, but he'd pervert your brain quicker than… there are no words to compare with how quick Reno would ruin you- ah no, like a paper bag in rain…no…" Sephiroth's sentence withered out and he looked again at Cloud. "No. I will not, CANNOT leave you with Reno."

"But Master-"

"Not a chance in Shiva's icy nether regions." Sephiroth rejected the idea. Cloud blinked. "Now pick up that sword, if you don't land an attack on either me or yourself by the end of the training, I'll run it through you."

Cloud jumped to his feet and clung to the sword. He lifted it and with all his effort, swung around, completely off balance and accidently let go again, his feet skidding through the mud of the training grounds.

-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-.-

"Woaaawww yo, when you said you were going to impale him… Man! I really didn't think you meant it like that dude, woaw…"

"Reno, are you drunk, a-fucking-gain?" Sephiroth hissed carrying the wounded boy slung across his shoulder, towards one of the elevators, trying to negotiate the sword stuck in Cloud's ankle across the hallway.

"No, I'm just…No, " replied the redhead before promptly walking into a pot plant which he apologized profusely to before asking out on a date. He still managed to squeeze into the lift despite how rapidly Sephiroth pressed the door close button. "So uh….you really went wild on him, huh?"

"I do not need to answer to you, drunken loaf."

"Alright fine," Reno snorted with laughter and leant against the wall to keep himself vertical. "But like, what he do to warrant that?"

"None of your business now shoo, I'm going to see Hojo, and I doubt he wants to see you."

"Oh, how coincidental yo, I'm just going there myself," Sephiroth said nothing at this but looked at Reno in a way that would make smarter and less drunk red heads die on the spot. "Turns out he perfected those bunny girls!" He put his hand on Sephiroth's Cloud-free shoulder and with alcohol thick breath, whispered loudly into his face, "turns out they're like that!" To prove his point Reno made a complicated, for him, gesture with his hands that Sephiroth tried to ignore.

When the lifts dinged open Sephiroth launched Reno out of them and out of his way before heading to Hojo 's main laboratory just down the corridor, Reno clambered back to his feet.

"Hey yo, what's up Sephi-baby, you're more tetchy than usual, Cloudykins got his period?"

"Reno, I mean it, if you don't fuck off right now, I'm going to do this,"- he shoogled the unconscious boy wildly- "to you."

Reno chuckled to himself but quietened down; he noiselessly accompanied the pair into the lab albeit dragging himself against the walls periodically. Sephiroth grit his teeth and pressed on. He barged into the lab without knocking at which Hojo gave an exasperated whine and threw several chemicals on the floor.

"Sephiroth! How many times-?"

"Silence, I haven't the patience." He unloaded the human cargo onto the nearest free space with a flop and took the nearest seat. "Deal with it."

"What?"

"The boy's ankle. I'd do it myself only I need mako to help me heal and Shinra's cut me off, apparently, I'm using more mako than I "should be" and Tseng," he glares at Reno, "Someone's BOSS, decided extra would be paid for out of my paycheck."

"Yo, it's not my fault," Reno hiccoughed from the corner before attempting to yank out the sword from cloud's ankle. Cloud moaned in his sleep.

"Well, once I – I mean we, perfect the mako draining business, we'll have no issues over money again, here, grab the mako form the cabinet, throw the boy in the machine, we'll get started."

Reno watched with a narrowed brow as the experiment, similar to before, save with a sword extraction occurred. He was a Turk, he was clean up. He was paid to destroy evidence, not to have an opinion, and for the most part, he did – almost- do as he was told. Interfering to stop anything was not on his permission list. Sure, he was messing around with the bunny girls behind Hojo's back, but as long as he didn't object to their creation, it wouldn't be noted. And Hojo had noticed. However, he frowned, particularly as he watched the boy's skin visibly reknit in the machinery. The new skin formed over like plastic melting in reverse, and it repulsed him to watch. There was something horrific about it.

It had been modified so that neither Sephiroth nor Hojo were needed to inject it into the boy. Cloud was put into the machine, three small drips inserted one in each arm and one at the back of his neck which, as far as Reno could see peering in through a small porthole, lead into the back of the machine which was dotted with holes. He didn't like this and frowned when he noticed the pink gas ooze from the boy's pores.

There were a lot of things in Shinra he didn't like but he tolerated them because it was better to know and be exempt than find himself in an experiment. Being a Turk had its perks.

"How did you say this happened Sephiroth? Aren't we trying not to kill him now?"

"The witless fool launched a sword at himself, and then passed out at the sight." He forced back a smile with failure and his shoulders shook in silent mirth, "What an absolute fool…"

"So why the sudden interest in the gasses?" Reno quizzed them, suddenly serious, there was a whiff of something sweet, maybe cinnamon in the air. "Money? Does the president know about these experiments?"

"Hahahaaha! Does the president know about ANYTHING that goes on in this place?" Hojo cackled. Sephiroth rolled his eyes.

"What interest is it of yours what we do to the boy? He is my property, I do what I like with him. Now scoot, go back to your owner, there's a good doggy,"

"Yeah yeah, if I told Tseng how you treat me-" Reno started huffily. He sometimes felt so underappreciated in that place…

"Reno…"

"What?"

"FUCK OFF!"

"I'm going, I'm going."

Once he had disappeared, Sephiroth turned to Hojo, one arm resting on the large white machine.

"When are we going to start breeding the creatures, Hojo? The experiment is getting old, and Cloud seems to be ripe enough, we'll need two if we want to-"

Hojo shook his head and laughed.

"No! We just need one. We'll take specimens, isolate the mako producing gene and combine them for optimum production. I know what I'm doing, who's the scientist here boy?"

"You'd better know what you're doing old man." Sephiroth said calmly.


	15. Unnatural

I've given up on asking for reviews I don't think I deserve them anymore but I owe to everyone that's ever read this to at least finish the story. Apologies again. Here's another dose of the story.

Thank you however, to Jellosub. This chapter's for you.

**Chapter Fifteen**

**Un-natural**

"I- I d-d-don't know anything, Sir!"

"Yes, I already knew that, you lump of addlepated Sahagin entrails, and you're not listening to me. Look at my lips, WHERE. DID. THEY. GET. HIM. FROM?"

"Sir, I...some town, with a mako reactor."

Sephiroth threw the grunt to the floor.

"That's something at least, what else?" His sword danced precariously near the armour clad grunt's nether regions. His eyes were full of what seemed to be "dare me" and the grunts full of "I'd rather you didn't please, thank you."

"Um..."

"Um is not an answer." The General's hand slipped further up the sword, illiciting a tiny squeal from the soon to be castrated grunt.

"M-m-mm- Mountains! There was a mountain! Um... a windmill..."

"Nibelheim."

Sephiroth nodded slowly. Of course. In such an out of the way place, no wonder no-one had come to collect the boy. He wondered if he could be lucky two times in a row.

"Good." He said to the grunt. "After your operation, I want you to send a search party for the boy's mother, or anyone who still remembers the boy. I will be away for the next two weeks, so make sure you don't do anything till I get back."

Something about Sephiroth's words was wrong, he knew he shouldn't have asked but, after getting away with raping his bitch, there was something about the General that wasn't as scary as it should have been.

"My...operation Sir?"

Sephiroth's eyes glinted with a smugness that would have sent Reno running for Tseng.

"Oh...that's right, you don't know yet...a certain president found a video of yours...I believe it took place in the little boy's changing rooms on the sixty-something-th floor...now why the president was looking at this footage, I do NOT know, nor, did I particularly care, the point is, why would you be in it and why...do you think it is so important to me?"

The grunt shook his head, he had absolutely no idea.

"S-sir...?" he said nervously.

Sephiroth growled, his teeth glinting dangerously like fangs.

"Did you honestly think no-one would find out?" He snarled and let the sword fall the remaining inches to the floor. The grunt's eyes widened in shock, his hands shooting to the area where the sword had pierced the fabric and he choked, unable to make a sound at the overwhelming pain. Already the blood was seeping through the blue of his trousers. Sephiroth yanked his sword free and wiped the blade across the grunt's face, crouching to watch the pain in his eyes.

"Cloud sends his regards." he said sweetly and promptly slammed the door behind him. "Don't bleed in my fucking office."

"Having fun?"

"Maybe." Sephiroth continued walking. He was heading back to his sleeping quarters to grab his things before he left and take Cloud to his "babysitters" for the fortnight before Tseng had cut him off. He stepped around the dark haired man and fell back into his natural stride.

"Maybe you should reconsider, if you maybe let the boy stay in the tent with-"

"Tseng, are you forgetting you were the one who convinced me to let him stay with your depraved pilot in the hopes of keeping him busy?"

"I've been wrong before."

"First time I've heard that. Why does it bother you so? You want to babysit him?"

"No. I actually have work to do. It just means I need to find whimsical distractions for Reno instead of the usual errands I have him do."

"Sounds like a paradox to me." He paused outside his door and swiped his keycard, the lock clicked open.

"Think about it."

"I have thought about it, and I regret to inform you that your offer has been denied, now vanish from my sight and find someone to clean up my office."

"Tell him yourself while you're depositing the boy into his "capable" arms."

"Do not waggle your fingers at me Tseng or you'll lose them."

Tseng shrugged.

"Everyone's waiting outside for you, I'll let them know you're on your way." With a brisk nod he departed and Sephiroth walked into his dorm. Cloud greeted him like an eager puppy.

"Master!" He exclaimed excitedly, and Sephiroth could almost see the tail wagging behind him.  
"Down boy." Sephiroth chuckled. "Are you ready to go to Uncle Reno's?"

"..." Cloud eyes fell to the floor.

"Cloud. Answer me now. Are you ready?"

"Yes sir."

"Look at me when I speak to you-" Sephiroth furrowed his eyebrows. "Boy, are you crying?"

"N...no, Master."

"Don't lie to me, Why are you crying like a little girl? Don't tell me you trying to buy me away from my duties with tears?"

Cloud shook his head.

"Then what is it you're trying to accomplish?"

"I don't know Master," the blond wiped his face with his sleeve. "I'll stop."

"Good boy. Now MOVE!" He ushered the boy out of the door and shoved him into the hallway. He pulled the door shut and the automatic lock triggered.

Neither of them spoke to the other in the uneasy trip down to Reno's room. Sephiroth wouldn't admit it but the tears and sniffling of the boy was breaking his heart. He didn't want to leave the boy but needs must. It was his duty.

Besides Cloud would be fine. Reno was an arse but he would look after him. Or else.

KNOCK KNOCK.

"Coming..." Oh God and he was. "J-Just a second."

The girl on top of him continued her ministrations, her mouth was so good. Reno arched his hips, his hands pulling at the soft cottony white ears protruding from behind her temples.

"That's a good girl, keep going." He purred, his eyes closed in bliss. "F- easy..."

She rolled her tongue along his shaft, the raspy wetness, prodding just the right places, his breathing quickened.

KNOCK KNOCK KNOCK.

"RENO I DO NOT ENJOY WAITING. YOU HAVE 5 SECONDS TO OPEN THIS GODDAMN DOOR BEFORE I DESTROY IT."

"Shit! Sephiroth. Easy, come on." Reno leaped off the bed and helped the bunny girl to her feet. "Shit shit shit shit! I forgot it was today. Shiiiiit, he's going to kill me if...into the bathroom!"

"1..."

He shut the bathroom door and dove back to the bed, reversing the sheets. He switched of the porn channel and threw his porn magazines under the bed.

"2..." He picked up a dozen used condoms, opened the window and launched them out. He left the window open to air the room before grabbing the toys he should not own and stuffing them into his cupboard, he pulled it shut and-

"5!"

Reno ran to the door with half a second to spare.

"You're lucky. Let me in. And pull your zip up." Sephiroth knocked him out of the way as he shouldered his way into the room.

Reno blanched and looked down to find his cock hanging out. He adjusted himself accordingly while Cloud stared quietly at him.

"What?" Reno snapped, "What? You keep staring...you hungry?" He laughed nervously unsure of his luck. Cloud stepped into the room and Sephiroth ignored Reno's comment.

"Why is there a used condom stuck in the window? In fact, why am I asking?" He said quietly, shaking his head. "Okay..."

The silver haired men pushed Reno up against the wall and glared at him.

"If you abuse, torture, mistreat, sully or taint my boy in ANY way, I swear to Gaia that death will be the last of your worries. You understand?"

Reno could only nod.

Sephiroth left him and turned to Cloud.

"If he makes you feel even slightly uncomfortable, tell Tseng. Understand Cloud?"

"Yes Master."

Sephiroth nodded..

"Wait for me. I'll come back you know I will right?" He smiled at Cloud who blushed and resisted hugging his Master. Sephiroth was so good to him. "Open your mouth."

Cloud did as he was told and Sephiroth kissed him, his tongue swiftly and deftly capturing the blond's. He drew out a breathless moan and was gone. Leaving Cloud to wipe a trail of his own drool from the edges of his mouth. Reno blinked.

"He's uh...a good kisser then?"

Cloud stared quietly at him.

"Right..."

At the point the bathroom door burst open and the naked bunny girl fell onto Cloud who stared up confused.

Reno chewed his lip.

"Cloud...meet Candy...she's...half...rabbit." His voice went up an octave. Cloud looked between them.

"She's got no clothes on."

Reno nodded nervously. He was going to die when Sephiroth got back. Candy sniffed Cloud quietly, her soft brown eyes finding him interesting until they suddenly dilated and she scrambled away from him, hiding behind Reno.

"What's wrong?" The girl shook her head of long blonde wavy hair before burying it into Reno's back. Something about Cloud had spooked her. Reno waved it away.

"It's okay, Cloud's going to live with us for a little while. He's okay, right Cloud? You won't tell Tseng or Hojo about Candy right?"

Cloud sat up and stared at the white pompom of a tail above the girl's bare backside.

"...Can I have some mako?"


	16. The Second Equation

A.n : Whooo second chapter in this month! I must be feeling poorly! Lmao. No, I'm fine, just inspired...please review my lovelies :)

**Chapter Sixteen**

**The Second Equation**

Reno lay topless on his bed. The morning had been stressful but with Cloud happily drawing faces on the bathroom mirror with his shaving cream and decorating the bathroom with shampoo, he'd managed to buy a good twenty minutes of snuggling up to his favourite bunny girl. He was currently watching a good old boxing match on the tele-box. He had no idea who was fighting who but it made a lovely change from helping Cloud perform menial tasks such as washing his hair and brushing his teeth.

At least there was no lasting damage he could do to himself short of swallowing the liquids. Besides, he'd hidden the sharp things.

"Mmm, Candy, you know why I call you Candy?"

The blond haired leporine girl shook her head and tittered.

"Because you're so sweet." He kissed her softly and rolled over, pinning her beneath him. He wondered how far he could get before Young and Innocent toddled out of the bathroom. The answer was not very far.

"Mako." Cloud hiccuped from the periphery of his vision.

Reno tilted his head towards the bathroom door. Candy clung tighter around Reno's waist, her ears elevated.

"What?"

"Reno...I want some mako...and lunch."

"You just had lunch."

"Nuhuh, I had bread on potato chips."

"That was lunch yo."

"I'm still hungry...and I didn't have any mako."

"I don't got any, deal with it."

Cloud sniffled and Reno's eyes narrowed. They returned to the television and Cloud pouted. Evidently tears wouldn't work at this moment in time.

He vaguely recalled Sephiroth telling him how the Turks were all located in the same corridor to keep the scum in one place where he didn't need to look at them. Cloud wondered why they still came to visit the pair of them so often in that case but he didn't voice it. Something told him his Master wouldn't appreciate the curiosity.

Thinking of his Master again pained him. Was he coming back? He hoped so but, something in his gut, some memory he couldn't grasp told him it was unlikely.

Regardless, Master would tell him not to worry about it and grow a backbone. He sniffled again, unconsciously, and wiped his nose on a purple jumper with sleeve slightly too big.

He wanted his mako now. And if Reno was forth giving...

"If he makes you feel even slightly uncomfortable, tell Tseng. Understand Cloud?" The voice of his Master's last words floated around his muggy head and he smirked

"!"

Cloud shut up yo!" Reno jumped up from his warm and comfy spot on the bed and grabbed the boy's mouth with his hand to muffle his wailing. "You want to get me into trouble."

Cloud nodded and licked Reno's hand. Reno removed his mouth, repulsed, pulling a face and wiping the saliva on his suit pants.

"Tsee-"

"Fine. Have your goddamn mako!" He dove under his bed and found a congealing mixture in a vial amongst a plethora of sex paraphernalia. He launched the goopy green paste at Cloud's head. He didn't duck and it zoomed precariously close to his head before landing on the carpet with the tiniest of clatters.. Smiling, Cloud picked it up.

"It's not proper mako." He frowned, "it's not floaty enough."

"Those are the breaks kiddo, it's all I get, I'm not as high up on the list like Sephiroth, besides, I don't need it, Reno-baby is au natural." He put that comment in Candy's direction, his hands smoothing down his bare chest.

Cloud stormed out of the door. Reno ran after him not thinking to grab shoes. Candy followed, tail waggling.

"Cloud uncool man! Get back here."

"TSEEEEENNNGG!" Cloud continued to scream running up the corridor, hammering on random doors. Reno had reached well past pale and his only saving grace would be the capture of the runaway blond before he reached his boss.

Candy scampered after. The red haired man that kept rescuing her from that scary man in white was running away. She needed to be beside him or she'd go back behind the metal bars. He hadn't told her to stay in the bathroom like he usually did when he left so it went without saying that she was to follow. But now she'd lost him.

"Rrreno!" She bleated. Unaware of her nakedness and looked around. She was lost.

"CLOUD! I'm going to tell Sephiroth about this behaviour." Reno knew he wouldn't but hopefully Cloud didn't and when the boy rounded the corner and he heard a smack he already knew he was in trouble.

Cloud stared up at Tseng. Tseng peered down at Cloud. Reno skidded around the corner. Tseng glared at Reno. Reno burned a hole with his eyes into the floor. Cloud burst into tears.

"Maaaaaster." He lamented and sat where he was on the floor.

"Reno?"

"He wants mako sir...I told him he didn't have any and-"

Tseng nodded, his patience only maintained by his need for afternoon coffee which would only be satiated once this calamity had been abated. He flung a set of keys at Reno. "Sephiroth's office, the cupboard under the windowsill. I understand he has a set requirement; that the boy be taken to Hojo's before he is injected however."

"But Sir-"

"Reno, are you questioning me?"

"No babe, everything is cool, I got this all covered is what I'm saying."

"Good, because it was me who suggested this temporal custodial to the General and it will put me in a bad light should the outcome result in less than the optimum. The specifications were exceptionally clear and any failure to adhere will on your head be it! Understand?"

"Yo, man I got it! It's cool." Reno hadn't understood a word of that but Tseng didn't need to know that. At that point, Candy managed to catch up.

"Rrreno!" She simpered and attached herself to Reno's neck. Reno grinned nervously.

"Yo baby, you met Tseng...my...boss..."

Cloud continued staring. He didn't think he'd seen anyone other his Master look so ready to explode. If Cloud had known the meaning of the word obliterate he would have used to describe Reno's next state of existence.

"Reno...my office. NOW."

With a mako-drunk Cloud slug over his shoulder, Reno had no trouble returning him to his room. Leaving him burbling on the floor he could visit Hojo-baby and see what he was up to. He hadn't visited in a while and no doubt his presence would have been missed. Leaving Candy to babysit- if cowering in a corner could be construed as babysitting – off he went to visit the demented scientist who was prime example of why interbred families should not be allowed scientific degrees.

"Put me the hell down! What are you doing? I have rights. People will- put me down."

Now this would be fun. Hojo had a new experiment for him to play with. Since the invention of the bunny girls, Reno didn't really have as much spare time so it was only natural a few things had slipped his notice but that needed to be rectified.

Peering through the glass window into the laboratory, Reno found himself staring in on a beautiful sight. A tall black haired girl chained to the wall. It was a refreshing sight and change from the blonde he was used to.

"GET ME THE FUCK DOWN."

And a dirty mouth on her too! Reno could have fun with her. He was careful to note the bouncing pair of excessively large D-sized breasts atop her personage. With a smile on his face he sauntered into the lab.

"Yo Hojo, 's happening man?"

"OUT."

Reno gave his trademark grin.

"Aw, I'm not going to touch anything or anyone." He winked at the girl who blinked curiously.

"I mean it Reno, out. I let you keep that bunny girl but I'm not having you ruining this delicate flower, like you have with "Candy", now out!"

"Fuck you," the black haired girl spat in Hojo's direction. Reno tried very hard to contain himself; in many ways.

"What's your name babes?"

"Drop dead."

"Interesting name. I'm Reno."

"Unless your going to take me down from here and take me home, I don't want to hear it!" The feisty black haired girl snapped at him. Hojo sighed and proceeded to inject her with the same yellow concoction he sedated Cloud with. She sagged instantaneously, her eyes rolling back before her head drooped.

"Jees, it took four syringes of that to knock out the boy Hojy, what dosage is that?"

"Significantly less than the boy's. She's had limited interaction with mako so her resistance is pathetic. Makes this," he indicated to the syringe, "so much more effective."

Why was everyone using such big words today, Reno mused.

"She's a much weaker specimen but..." Hojo cupped the girl's chin with his right hand. "She'll work perfectly for what we need to do. Once Sephiroth returns...we can work on creating a mako producing army."

"Yuhuh...and when does Sephiroth return." Reno folded his arms.

"Not for a while but the sooner the better, unless..." he looked to Reno with a sly grin. "You want to bring the boy down now?"

Reno shook his head.

"No, you should probably wait for Seph yo, he'd hate to miss it, y'know."

"Hmph. Then get out of my sight. If I find you groping this one, I will NOT turn a blind eye."

"Yeah yeah, I gottit," Reno said nonchalantly, though inside his brain was doing somersaults. This was another innocent human that had been dragged into this place. Reno sighed and left. He needed to be careful, his normal disturbances were tolerated but if he didn't watch his step with Cloud and this knew girl, Sephiroth would really have his head.

Maybe he was getting too out of his depth in this place. He hurried back to Cloud and Candy. Hoping the latter hadn't spooked out the former too much.


	17. ReUnion

A/n: I'm on a roll wheee! Please keep reviewing. They REALLY REALLY do help. Yes, I understand it was slightly obvious that Cloud and this Other person (in case you didn't figure it out yet) would meet again but it had to happen. Anyhow, the story might not be as humorous from here in, but I'll try and add in a few dollops here and there to brighten the mood when I can. Review if you want more : )

**Chapter Seventeen**

**Reunion**

"Cloud, I'm serious. I don't want to but it's Hojo's orders."

Just at the mention of the name, Cloud wriggled further under Reno's bed. The redhead sighed and wished he hadn't even brought up his name.

"Look kiddo, we gotta go, I- Sephiroth says it's fine, it's just routine, plus, there's a tub of mako in it for you?"

Cloud debated.

"Fine. Two?"

Cloud considered.

"What would your Master say yo? What if he knew you were hiding under the bed like that Spikey? Wouldn't he be disappointed?"

Cloud didn't like to admit it but it was true. Then again, his Master had left so what was the point.

"Why should I care? Master's gone, he's left me." he sniffled.

"Cloud, yo, brighten up it's not like he's left forever man, he's coming back. Besides, I'd like to see the army that could bring him down."

Cloud chewed this thought over.

"I don't like Hojo."

Candy, had she been able to vocalise, would have said the same thing.

"I don't have a choice. Look," Reno got down on all fours and peered at the skinny blond puff of hair hidden under the bed. "Would it not be a good idea to go down there voluntarily than have Hojo send someone up with that sedative?"

Cloud nodded, peering out at him.

"Then come on out, I'll find something edible for when you're finished. Come on."

Cloud didn't want to go down to Hojo. Without Sephiroth there, he could do anything he liked to him, Reno wouldn't be able to stop it. But if it was routine, then all he needed to do was go in that machine and sit dazed on mako for the next two hours, most of it would be spent in that machine were no-one could hurt him. It was somewhat tolerable.

But Cloud had an aching feeling inside him that Reno was lying and, after he was coaxed out from under the bed Reno had to drag him to Hojo's lab.

"." He screamed and wailed, and kicked and flailed, and punched and cried until a bruised Reno finally plopped him down on the floor of the containment room. This wasn't the machine. Cloud hit at the reinforced glass walls as hard as he could to little avail.

"Excellent." Hojo muttered, "we have a little surprise for you today boy, Sephiroth was adamant we wait till he returned before started the insemination process but I've been itching to start this thing. So he'll just have to catch up when he gets back. Now don't worry; we've managed to make her strong enough so...just...go feral." He smirked and pushed several buttons on the control panel on the podium in front of him.

With a grating whirr, the floor in the middle of the containment room moved to the side allowing an elevator from the floor below to push up something. It was a girl.

Cloud looked at her confused. Something that hurt in the back of his brain recalled her, but he didn't focus on it until she uncurled from her position hugging her knees and scoped out her surroundings.

"Hojo, you freak, what the he-?" She was still woozy from the sedative and even as she sat the room spun around her. Cloud found himself approaching her.

"C-Cloud?"

His eyes widened. She knew his name. He almost squeaked in fear when she dove at him and wrapped her thin arms around him. He scratched at first, but when he realised she wasn't hurting him or relenting he gave up and let his arms dangle by his sides. The large bumps on her chest were similar to Candy's and now he knew why Reno liked her so much. They were so comfy and soft.

"How cute." Hojo cackled, "they know each other."

The black haired girl pulled away and looked at him, her eyes filling with tears, she was almost shaking.

"You're here...for so long...I...you haven't changed...not even a little."

Cloud remained silent. She was scaring him. Who the hell was this girl?

"It's...me, Tifa...Cloud please tell me you remember, it's only been a few years, surely you-" She let go of him in disbelief. How could he have forgotten?

"Oh dear, dear," Hojo tutted. "Seems you haven't made enough of an impression."

"Shut the hell up asshole." Tifa snapped at Hojo and clung to Cloud again. His head flopped onto her bosom and he barely resisted snuggling up to doze. He had given up trying to make sense of this place. "Cloud...how could... you haven't changed in five...six...years?"

The eighteen year old girl continued to hold him tight. She had missed him so much.

"Well then," Hojo decided, grabbing Reno by the back of his suit jacket and yanking him out of the lab, "let's leave them to get better acquainted."

"What have they done to you Cloud?" Tifa demanded. Cloud merely stared back at her with the blankest of expressions. "You haven't changed, you can't speak, have you been here all this time? Mama and Dad...they thought Shinra would... but when you left...they came after me. Tell me, was it because I tried to hunt you down? Don't worry though, they'll find us. Daniel...he changed after you left, he helped me start a group, we had planned to liberate you, and my brother, he works here, he was going to send us maps and any other useful things but...please tell me we're not too late." She burst into tears again and Cloud decided to speak.

"But...who are you?"

His words only made the tears worse.

"IT'S ME! Tifa! I- can't you remember where you were before Shinra kidnapped you?"

"K-K-kidnapped me? But Master said-" He blinked, suddenly remembering the barest minimum, but more than Sephiroth's words. "Master told me you wanted rid of me! You phoned the Shinra with that machine and Master saved me!"

Tifa looked a cross between horrified and confused.

"Who is your Master?"

"He looks after me." Cloud smiled, despite how much he missed him and then snapped at Tifa. "He took me in! AND HE'S COMING BACK!" He grabbed her shoulders and shook her violently,

his strength and force hurting his neck.

"Owww! Cloud, stop, okay, he's coming back." She wrestled free of him, and he returned to staring at her. "What's he look like?"

"He's really pretty, he has long silver hair-"

"Sephiroth? The leader of the Shinra army kidnapped you?"

"RESCUED!"

"Cloud, he stole you, we never wanted rid of you."

"b-but Master wouldn't...he wouldn't lie." Why would Master lie to him? He had no need to lie. He wondered if that was why he had left now; he couldn't deal with having to look after him anymore. It would make sense. He was useless. Even Reno had reduced him to tears by chiding him because he couldn't brush his teeth.

"I hate to tell you but he did. And now the bastard is away to massacre half the population of Wutai because they won't give them their mako resources."

Cloud blinked.

"Why not?"

"No, I mean they plan to just put in a mako reactor, and not buy it from them."

"But why should they buy it if they can give it to them?"

Tifa narrowed her eyes.

"You...no, I- never mind," She conceded, clearly this was going to take a while to explain. "Have they kept you in a cupboard for the last couple of years?" She couldn't believe he was still as ignorant as he had been they day they first met and just as awkward. He still wasn't wearing shoes.

"No...Master's bedroom."

Tifa shook her head.

"Look, keep it quiet but...like I said, Daniel and my brother are going to help us get out of here, I know they will. We just gotta cross our fingers and hope these fuckers don't kill us first."

"Master might help you, if I tell Master how much you want out-"

"NO! Don't tell anybody." Tifa exclaimed. "Just don't."

Cloud tilted his head confused but nodded.

"I've missed you so much Cloud." She sighed and hugged him again.

Cloud wished he could remember who she was.

In the other room, Reno was trying to keep his views to himself.

"I thought you said we were waiting till Sephiroth returned?"

"Yes, yes that's all good an' all but the sooner we introduce them to each other, the closer they get to the breeding and once we successfully breed them, the resulting creature will make us able to produce a mako creating genius, we've created miracles before, we can do it again."

"I don't think this is a good idea yo,"

"You're not paid to think Reno, you're paid to do as you're told and I suggest you continue on that path."

Reno nodded, but was uneasy.

"Anyway, it's time to separate them, I need to inject more of the other's cells into the female, once she builds up a resistance to his DNA, she should no longer be too weak to carry the child. If she carries a mako producer, it'll eat her from the inside; no big deal but we want to keep her for a spell and it'll give us an opportunity for further young." He laughed madly. "We cross breed the first filial generation and determine if they are fertile and hahaha! We create a bunch of mako producers. It's genius, by then we'll no longer be dependant on external sources such as Wutai."

Reno felt nauseous.

By the time Hojo and Reno returned the two of them were deep in conversation as though they had never been separated. Tifa had filled him in on the goings on outside Shinra and how work had been and how Daniel had...well, for some reason the things she mentioned about him were skimmed over. She mentioned him briefly and moved onto another topic. He didn't care enough to ask, it wasn't as though he knew who he was.

When Reno and Hojo returned the two of them didn't want to leave again.

"Come back please Cloud?" Tifa begged and he found himself somehow nodding, though he had no idea how he would manage it. Maybe he could try sneaking out in the middle of the night sometime. Hopefully Sephiroth or Reno wouldn't notice.

Reno, guilt ridden, was now fully aware of Hojo's plan having had it made clear whilst the pair were talking. If he had felt sick before, he had no idea how he was going to continue with this new knowledge. He pulled the protesting boy away with little thought.

"Back to the room Cloud, come on,"

"But-"

"Now yo, move."

Cloud relented and found himself being dragged back to Reno's dorm. Why did his Master lie like that. What else was he lying about? Did he even like having him around any more? What could he do? At least now he knew that Tifa still wanted him back! His vigour had been renewed. If he could escape and run away from here, he would go back there. Wherever "there" was.


	18. In The Still Of The Night

Hope you're enjoying this guys. We're getting there. The plot thickens :O I didn't actually think I'd be writing this much..-checks watch- Sephiroth should be back soon, so, let's get the reviews posted and we'll say nothing of what's happened in his absence and Reno doesn't get in trouble yeah? Love you all.

**Chapter Eighteen**

**In The Still Of The Night**

Why did he lie to me?

What did I do?

What did he do?

Why me?

If the Lockharts didn't phone them to take me away, how did they know about me?

So many questions flooded through his mind as he lay awake that night. There was no way the boy could sleep with the knowledge off the "before" so close at hand. He could find out everything about why he was here and how he got here. Everything about how he had made his way into Hojo's slimy clutches and Sephiroth had rescued him. This girl knew it all.

How indeed did the Shinra know about Cloud in the first place? Why was he here? Who _was_ that strange well padded girl that seemed to know everything about him? This "Tifa" as she called herself and that "Daniel". The names played tricks in the periphery of his memory, teasing him, taunting him, before letting the answers trickle away out of his reach like gritty mako dust.

He didn't like it.

He knew the mako had helped the memory loss. High levels impaired the long term memory area of the limbic system, but he didn't know that much, all he knew was that mako made the pain go away.

The mako was clouding his recognition, he always knew that the best way to block out bad memories was a large dosage of mako but given the boy's almost permanent mako induced stupor, surely something should have stuck.

Regardless, he had to find out more.

Wriggling his way out of the small blue water-bed on Reno's bedroom floor, he slipped on the nearest article of clothing. The red head's largest black T-shirt with some weird band called mötorhead on the front. He apparently used it when he was out "pulling birds." It fell to his knees like a nightgown. It would have fitted Candy better. He peered around to see if he could successfully sneak out of the room.

There are two terrifying things in a bedroom that are perfectly everyday. One is; lights that blink like eyes and two; real eyes. His heart skipped a beat as he looked over to see himself being watched.

Candy was staring at him. Her eyes following him nervously across the room. She didn't like that boy he wasn't like the other people around. He had eyes that glowed like the blood of the planet, skin that swam with the sweet scent of nature. It was unnerving. Not right. The human in her found him cute, the rabbit in her found him weird. All in all, she was wary.

Reno slept slept on as if in a coma, facing the other direction and snoring loudly.

The two blonds stared at each other. A stalemate.

The stillness in the room crept up Cloud's spine, freezing him to the spot. Candy relented first, clinging tighter to Reno who groaned quietly and fidgeted.

"Mmm but Sephi-babe, your tits would look great in this." He groaned again, shuffled, and buried his face into Candy's cleavage.

Cloud had learned first hand that Reno slept naked and decided it would be prudent to leave before he had a chance to run after him. Ignoring the staring rabbit girl he slipped out of the door and into the hallway.

Shinra was twice as scary at night. The headquarters more intimidating the less people were there. The corridors creaked as they remembered the bustling activity from the day and the echoing wails bouncing off the walls were more than just the wind picking up. Every slap of his bare feet against the ground echoed too. The silence was heavy, his heartbeat raced in his head, the promise of being caught ever present.

Cloud liked the quiet. He liked not having to talk to anyone, to be left on his own. But this was too much, it was almost like kicking through custard. Breathing through a plastic sheet. He huddled into the walls as though the empty corridors would else wise swallow him up.

Why did it feel like he would be caught easier when there was no-one around?

He took the stairs, guessing the right floor from the numbers on the walls. He remembered the shape of the numbers outside Hojo's lab and the echoing was confined to the stair well at least.

He found himself shivering when he realised the wailing intensified as the distance to the lab decreased. That was where he was heading.

Hojo's laboratory in the dark was like a jungle at hunting time. Cloud was constantly aware of his surroundings. A snarl from a cage here, a yelp from another. A swipe of a claw, the menacing leer from a pair of eyes, or worse, just the one eye. The rooms smelt of death and dying. The room was haunted by the experiments, not occupied with them. The dying howls making him quake with each tentative, deliberate step.

His paced slowed down the further he walked, but not because of weariness.

It was too dark to see his surroundings. The rooms merged into each other, shadows were hiding places for escaped creatures, corners entire ecosystems of insects. It was so much worse in the dark, he remembered, barely, the cell with the animal carcasses and repressed the urge to vomit.

Beasts went for him from every angle and his feet, at one point, trod through a substance he was glad he could not see.

The sticky thick substance half glued his foot to the floor but he persisted. The girl had to be close. His feet smacked the floor yet again.

"Hello?"

A nervous voice squeaked from up ahead. It had a female ring to it that Cloud recognised. Something flashed through his mind with surprising clarity. A memory. Was it real or a dream? He wasn't quite sure.

_He was in a room with a bed. Blue sheets and it was dark. The curtains were drawn and the only light was the moon peering in through the slowly opening door from the hall. The room smelt warm, worn, comfortable. The door creaked open and a girl tiptoed into the room. She chewed her nails in the doorway._

"_I'm not scared okay? I just wanted to make sure you were still here."_

"_Why wouldn't I be here?"_

"_I don't know. You just might not have been."_

_The girl crept into the bed beside him. Cold feet pressed against his ankles. She smelt sweet, soapy, her dark hair still slightly damp from a late night bath. She wrapped her soft warm arms around him, draining his heat, but it was okay because he was too warm anyway. She smelt nice, like a girl should._

"_You shouldn't have cut your hair, you look like a doofus."_

"_You're cold."_

"_So?"_

_Cloud shrugged and turned onto his side. The girl curled up against him._

Cloud shook it away. It was so clear, as though it has never left. The fear in the girls voice had brought it swimming back. The fearful tone didn't last long however.

"Hey, I know you're there fuck-head. I got a belt in martial arts, I could kick your ass from here, bring it, come on, you don't wanna mess with me."

The tone was still laced with fear but she seemed to enjoy the shouting. It seemed to be keeping her going. The temper in her voice brought back another memory. Another sequence.

_It was winter in a village he couldn't quite name. There was snow on the path and the water in the tower had frozen over. He and the dark haired girl had climbed up and hidden in the tower on top of the frozen water. Down below a group of children were running around beneath them. He wasn't sure how he knew it but they were looking for him, and if they found him, the consequences wouldn't be great. The height wasn't great but from the perspective of the kids, it was dizzyingly high._

"_Those little bastards. If I was on my own, I'd tear them all new asses." Tifa stated, proud of her new vocabulary._

"_If Mama and Papa knew you were speaking like that-"_

_The pair giggled._

"_Don't snitch on me."_

"_I won't. Just stop asking me to come to school with you. I don't like it, it's weird."_

_Tifa pouted._

"_You're weird."_

"_I know."_

"_Fine, I'll stop asking, but... you gotta do something for me." She said and knelt over him, in front of his face. Her eyelids drooped a little._

"_What's that?"_

"_Could you ki-?"_

"_CLOUD, Get out here you little freak?"_

_Tifa startled and, as if waking from hypnosis, sat back, flustered._

"_N...never mind."_

"SHOW YOURSELF ASSWIPE!"

Cloud blinked, shaken from the memory. She was screaming at the slightest movement. Hadn't she wondered why whoever it was hadn't turned the lights on? Surely anything that could reply to her shouting would had turned the lights on. Had she been shouting like this all night?

"T-Tifa." He half whispered. She had done enough shouting, that, had their been anyone even remotely close they'd have already come running, but still Cloud whispered. The shouting stopped. There was silence again.

"Tifa, it's me, it's Cloud."

"Cloud?" The uncertainty in her voice crept back in. "Quick, let me out, we can escape while it's quiet. Come on, they'll be waiting for us."

Cloud froze.

Go? Now? With this girl he'd just met. How?

"I...I can't."

"Come on Cloud, quick, don't you want to come home?"

"I am home. Master takes care of me,"

"If he takes care of you, why are you here? Shouldn't you be with him instead?"

"He...left...he'll come back though! He loves me." Cloud insisted, though his voice sounded doubtful. Tifa picked up on it and retorted.

"Why'd he leave if he loves you?"

"H he loves me I- I can't, I'm sorry, bye." He turned to run back. But her voice stopped him again.

"It's always me than rescues you huh Cloud?" There was a hint of pain through the voice. Cloud stopped. "It's always been that way."

"What are you talking about?"

"Come closer, please,"

He took a few wary steps closer, the silver blue light from the window illuminating her tear streaked face. Her lips were a paler of grey than the rest of her moon drenched face. Her eyes were sunken, small circles surrounded them. She hadn't slept. The pupils were dilated, engulfing almost all but a sliver of iris. She shook, tiny, behind a set of metal bars. The girl was absolutely terrified,and he could see why she'd called him closer. She needed to see him to know it was really Cloud she was speaking to.

She grasped his hand in her own.

"How do I know you're telling the truth?" he whispered.

"How else would I know your name?"

"They knew my name! How did they know my name?"

"I don't know Cloud."

"Don't call me that," he said dejectedly snatching his hand back, "I barely met you."

"What would you have me call you?" Her hands grabbed at the bars again, fresh tears snaked down her cheeks. Cloud wanted so badly to wipe them away but he was afraid to touch her. "It's your name."

"Forget it."

"Cloud, do you remember when you went up Mount Nibelheim everyday because you wanted to forget things? You kept talking about how you wanted to go back to how it used to be, back to nature, and how you'd rather be claimed by the mako than remember what it was like? Do you remember?"

"Remember what?"

"You told me how it hurt to think about things and the mako was like your drug, it kept the nightmares at bay, remember?"

Cloud shook his spiky head and knelt down. He couldn't remember any of it.

"The mako kept your nightmares away but you kept mine away Cloud, it's not the same. You didn't care, for them it was make up, clothes, boys, but you...as long as you were there-"

Cloud blinked confused. She wasn't making any sense.

"Tell me about me. What was I like Tifa? This Cloud you knew. Who was he?"

"He was...broken..."

Cloud stared.

"You know...after a bone reheals itself after breaking, there's a calcium build up in that area. It's more likely to break again in the areas around the calcium build up but they will strengthen too...we learned that in biology. I told you that before you were taken from us...You got stronger Cloud, just look at you."

"I'm not strong, I-"

There was a click at the door. Both of them froze this time. Footsteps towards them. A growl snapped from Cloud's left, followed by a "Shaddap." Cloud's eyes widened and he found himself grabbing the girl's hand again. She held his tightly in turn.

"Yo, blondy, give it up, I know your in here."

"Reno?"

"Come on dude, back to the room."

"How did you-?"

Reno tilted his head in an "are you stupid?" way.

"Oh please, I AM a Turk! They hired me for a reason Cloudy-bo, I CAN do my job...when my life depends on it, now come on."

"But Tifa-"

"Will still be here later. Come on."

"Cloud!" Tifa tightened her grip as Reno took his other hand. He was stuck between them like the rope in a tug-o-war.

"Reno...I...the girl.."

"Cloud, it's out of my hands, besides, it doesn't look like she's leaving any time soon yo?"

"Rreeeno."

"I told you to stay in the room."

"Rreeeno! Rreno Rreeeeno."

"Cloud, move it will you, she's going to wake everyone up, then we'll both be in the shit."

"But Tifa-"

"Enough butts, I'm the pervert here, now move it, yo. We'll discuss this back in the room. Hey, Cleavage, you tell anyone I was here and you'll stay here, gottit?" A finger pointed towards the girl in the cage.

"Got to hell ginger! Wait...stay here? You mean you'll help?"

Reno whined.

"It's not ginger! It's red! Red! Gottit? Red. Not ginger." He pried the boy's fingers from Tifa's and slung him across his shoulder.

"Yo spiky, I bring you here and you don't want to come, I drag you away and you come back, forgive me for failing to see the logic in this."

"Wait, you're going to help me?

"We'll see." Reno said stiffly and dragged the boy away. Candy followed obediantly.

"Reno, who is she?" Cloud asked from across Reno's shoulder as he carried the boy away.

"You know more than I do kiddo."

"Why does she make me feel all sick when I look at her?"

Reno grit his teeth and kept walking. _Damn you Hojo._

"I don't know."

"I think she's right. I used to know her."

Reno said nothing to this. He didn't know what to say. He could remember when Cloud was so quiet he could barely look at Reno or really anyone without shaking or "sir" following his words. It was amazing what a week without Sephiroth could do.

"Reno."

"Hmm?"

"She wants to leave."

"Hah. We all do."

"No, I mean, Shinra, and she wants me to come with her."

"You want to go with her?"

"I don't know." Cloud replied. He was thinking.

"Maybe you shouldn't let anyone else know about it yo, I doubt it'll go down well. Now, since it's too late for bed and too early for breakfast, how about some whiskey? Let "Uncle Reno" show you a few tricks of the trade."

"Whiskey?"

"Ah, the things I can teach you."

Sure, he'd been asked not to pollute the kid but, he was young, he'd bounce back.

"By the way kiddo?"

"Huh?"

"Don't touch my clothes, yo, uncool."


	19. It Only Takes One

A/N: Thanks for sticking with me guys :) This chapter was so hard for me to write and I hope it's all good. I DO NOT condone binge drinking okay? It's just funny to watch others wreck themselves when you're the "sober one". Enjoy and review

**Chapter Nineteen**

**It Only Takes One**

Cloud winced as he staggered to his feet, his legs protesting all the while+. A squeak of a grimace fell from his dry lips and he shakily pulled himself from the bathroom floor. It hurt to open his eyes. Even just moving made his stomach lurch and twist. For a second he thought he was back with Hojo. The fact he was only in underwear almost clarified it. His pulse echoed through his head.

Shakily, grabbing the sink for support, he found his feet. The whole room went sideways and he found himself on the floor again.

The light stabbed his protesting eyes as he fell. His head smacked the tiles. What the hell happened last night?

Resigning himself to dragging his unresponsive body out of the bathroom, he crawled out into the hallway.

He recognised it as Reno's quarters and he could hear snoring from the other room.

"Reno?"

The snoring continued. He tried again; louder.

"Aww hell. Is it morning?"

"Rrreno!" Tweeted the reply.

"Yes, well done sweetheart." Reno groaned and rolled haphazardly out of the bed, landing on his feet only by luck and not by skill. He scratched himself and yawned.

"Mmm, you know you've had fun when the drink punishes you the next day yo, and by Gaia, I am suffering for my sins."

He found Cloud on the floor in the hall and grinned.

"Did we get wasted or what?"

Cloud couldn't believe Reno was standing, but the proof was in the fact that the red head was looming over him with his trademark grin. He was helped to his feet and found himself clinging to the older man for support. Now he knew why Reno was never entirely vertical.

"What...happened?"

"You got wasted dude." Reno chuckled heartily. His bloodshot eyes the only evidence of his self punishment. A hand leant against the wall, steadying himself. He had almost perfected the act of pretending to be sober and ran a shaky hand through his bed hair. "Man, I don't even remember what happened at all. Must've been a good night."

Cloud turned and hugged the wall. If this was a good night, he'd hate to see the bad ones.

"C-Can I go-?" His next words were cut short and his eyes bugged. The taller of the two recognised the symptoms immediately and grabbing the blond, almost threw him into the bathroom.

_Gonna puke. Gonna puke. Gonna puke!_

The sickening sound of his stomach contents – mostly water – flooding into the toilet bowl caught his ears. He whimpered, water collecting in his throat.

"Careful dude, no second hand drink on the carpet. They don't pay me enough to replace it...well, heh, they do yo, but not enough for me to WANT to replace it." Reno sniggered and held Cloud over the rim. He wouldn't have made it otherwise.

Round two was just as violent, raising goose-flesh on Cloud's bare arms. Small strings of congealing saliva dripped from his mouth. He wiped it with two sheets of toilet paper but the choking feeling lingered.

"Heh, greenhorn,"

"Alcohol...did...this?" Cloud gasped, his ribcage fluttering up and down like a starlings.

"Yup, ain't it awful." Reno replied cheerfully. Cloud couldn't believe he was enjoying this. "That's why you shouldn't drink kiddo, it'll kill ya."

Cloud blinked. It was him who had suggested it in the first place. Where was the logic in that?

"Then...why do you-?"

"Because I am Reno and I do what I like yo, come on then, let's see what Tseng wants us to do today." He yawned and stretched again, before leaving Cloud with his face half in the toilet.

"Reno, I- clothes."

"Yeah yeah," the redhead muttered. He'd forgotten about them. Where did he put them? He returned to his bedroom, wondering if he'd left the boy's suitcase of clothing in there. He didn't like the sobering sight that he found.

"I knew you'd kidnap one sooner or later."

"S-Sephiroth!"

Indeed the silver haired man sat in his room, stroking Candy's ears. She was almost smiling, but her eyes were darting back and forth, she clearly did not like being in Sephiroth's presence.

"Good afternoon."

"How did you get in here?"

"Tseng left a set of floor keys lying around in his pocket."

"But...you are supposed to be in Wut-"

"It would be correct to presume you didn't get the message this morning? Wutai is now under ShinRa occupation...which means, my job there is done. You should have been there with clean up. Understandably, I assumed that, with you babysitting, you're presence would have been excused. Now..." he held up Reno's phone, his thumb stroking across the keypad, "imagine my surprise to have found this and what do I see? Four missed calls, all from Tseng. Explain."

"I...come on yo, I was just...y'know, I slept in." Reno attempted to explain. His face almost as pale as Cloud's had been a few minutes ago.

"Through the standard issue ringtone?"

"...Sure, why not right?"

"Late night last night?"

"Not that late yo, just a little later..."

Sephiroth's hand tightened around Candy's right ear. She whimpered and pawed at him and he stood up, also pulling her to her feet. Reno frowned and protested.

"Could this have been the reason?"

"Hey hey, c'mon Seph!" Reno started, braver than he actually felt. "Come on, she did nothing, leave her out of this."

Sephiroth yanked at the large floppy ear roughly, the girl's head followed. Tears sparkled in the corners of her eyes.

"This," he yanked again. "THIS, is going back to Hojo, if you have hurt, damaged or by any means lowered the quality of the boy." He threw the bunny girl to the floor.

As Reno attempted to run to her aid, Sephiroth grabbed his shoulders and kneed him in the stomach.

Winded, Reno fell to his knees, a painful expression of his face.

The General kneeled, grabbing his face with a cruel smile.

"Now. Is there anything I should know before I go to collect the child?"

Reno shook his head. He couldn't have spoken if he'd tried, bent double, trying to catch his breath. As Sephiroth left the room, he crawled off to Candy who half dove at him, whimpering into his shoulder. He held her lightly, his free hand curling around to stroke the back of her neck comfortingly. Her soft pink nose twitched as she leant, terrified, into his shoulder.

"It's okay." Reno wheezed, "he's...just worried about Cloud."

He hoped he was right and grimaced. His lungs were tight. He had the proper training to defend such blows but when your attention was elsewhere...

Even as Sephiroth scoured the house, he never expected Cloud to instantaneously dive into his arms and when he did, he was ecstatic. Until he realised why.

"Master!" Cloud gasped, "Help..."

Sephiroth stared in annoyed consternation as the boy attempted to walk over to him. It was a fool's errand. The boy tipped over after a few shaky steps. Sephiroth was beside him in seconds, lifting him into his arms like a bundle of washing.

"What did he do to you?"

"I...feel...sick." The blond gasped before vomiting down Sephiroth's jacket.

Sephiroth closed his eyes and thought of his happy place. He sighed. Then he caught a whiff of something. No? He sniffed the boy.

Alcohol. He was drunk. That thick-headed clown had given the boy alcohol.

"RENO!" Sephiroth roared.

"Sephiroth, I can understand how distraught you were with his actions, but, there are worse things than alcohol, seriously, I -"

"He can fetch another one, Hojo has made many." Sephiroth said, aloof.

"THAT'S NOT THE POINT."

"Reno," Tseng suggested calmly eyeing up the General's reaction. "Shouting won't help."

It would probably make it worse given the silver haired man's current state. If he was angry enough before, he wouldn't have the patience to deal with shouting.

"No, it fucking won't yo, but you ain't seriously going to let him away with this?"

"There are others, it would serve you right for giving the boy alcohol." Sephiroth growled. He was the only one sitting. The other two paced Tseng's office furiously.

"IT DIDN'T WARRANT THE FUCKING- YOU DIDN'T HAVE TO- Tseng, please! Will you fuck do something!"

"Reno, calm down."

"I will not calm down yo! This is- just because- he shouldn't get special treatment because-"

"You know how it works here,"

"That bastard had no right-"

Tseng had now seen enough by this point. He stood up, walked to the door of his office and held it open.

"Reno, leave, I will discuss this with you later."

"Tseng!" He couldn't believe his ears. "You're not serious?

"Oh I'm serious. Get out."

With a glare aimed directly at Sephiroth's throat, the still partially hungover Turk stormed out of the room, knocking over his chair as he did, and slamming the door. The clock ticked ominously through the newly formed silence.

"You shouldn't have killed her, experiment or not," Tseng said stiffly peering at Reno through the blinds. "Reno might be a pain in the neck but he didn't kill the child." He turned to Sephiroth.

"No. He knows better."

"Sephiroth, you have to control your temper."

The reply was a half hearted shrug.

"Too late now."

"He's not happy. You do realise he's going to do something stupid now..."

"He's welcome to try it."

Tseng tried another route.

"How is the boy?"

"Working off a hangover... I specifically told him not to corrupt the boy, and what does he do?" Sephiroth sighed. "I have no idea how this will effect the mako production."

Tseng glanced around at him.

"I don't think it has anything to do with your experiment Sephiroth, Dare I say, I think perhaps you have feelings for the boy."

Heh," Sephiroth chuckled, trust Tseng to get it right with the first guess. "How droll of you Tseng, as if I would deign to like such a pitiful creature. You have seen him right?"

"Opposites attract."

"Hilarious. Absolutely hilarious. Now, I'm going to leave, because I actually have things to do since someone decided to fob off his paperwork onto me instead of helping out while I was away furthering the progress of Shinra's pathetic reign."

"Be my guest," Tseng said opening the door again and glancing along the corridor. "Oh, and a warning, Reno is hiding behind the corner, might want to keep that in mind. He's going to do something reckless."

"Noted."

Indeed as he walked along the corridor, Reno had the audacity to place his hands on his jacket and attempt to assault him.

"Get your filthy paws off me, you drawling idiot or-"

"Or what." Reno dared. "You'll slice half in half too?"

"I'll consider it. Remove your hands from my person. You have three seconds. One..." His lips slowly and carefully whispered the words into his ear. "...Two."

Reno swung back, attempting to punch him but Sephiroth caught him. He was still intoxicated and it wasn't very hard. He grabbed his wrist, tight, and twisted it around. With a swift kick to the back, aimed perfectly between the kidneys, Reno fell, landing on his stomach with a harsh grunt. Sephiroth was still holding his wrist.

"You only get to try that once." Sephiroth said coolly, his boot pressing against the back of Reno's thigh. It wasn't met with resistance. There was a soft scrunch of the leather against the fabric. He hadn't even pulled out his weapon.

"Are you going to try that again?"

"No."

"I'm sorry, I didn't hear that. Speak up."

"No sir."

"Good boy." Sephiroth grinned and kicked the fallen Turk before turning his back to him. Reno knew better than to attempt a back attack.

The silver haired man smiled and walked the other way. There were two lifts on the floor and the other one was just as far as the one in the direction the pissed off redhead was now blocking. He wondered if his boy had awoken yet.

He remembered how alcohol had always spiked his libido and, as it was very much a proven case in Reno, he wondered if the same could be said for Cloud. His mind wandered back to that day when he lay so helpless on that bed, mewling beneath him and he smiled. Before he became of anything more than a passing interest.

He wondered if it were possible to make him moan for him even more when he was as vulnerable as he was in his hungover state.

With a smirk across his face and an almost spring to his step, he sped up.

Across the hallway, Reno resisted breaking down into tears. He found his feet again, unaware of the bruising that would soon appear on his arm, and slumping into a crouch against the wall. Sure the rabbit girl was a no consequence fuck, a quickie on the side but...Gaia, he'd never meant for the girl to-. He bit his lip as he remembered the way the blood splattered up the wall when the cold blade, as cold as that asshole's heart, slid through her soft, fur lined flesh. That scream! It was his fault. He could have stopped him, if he'd only been a man and got up.

Though Sephiroth had winded him, he could have made time to get up, to brush himself off. He could've stopped him. He tried not to picture it. The flesh, raw and gaping, her shrill voice, choking in her throat. The pain she must have been in. But still the girl's voice.  
"Rreno Rre-no!" Those last croaking words. She was happy just to have him there.

It was his fault she was there. It should have been him he took his anger out on.

"Oh shit." His head rolled back against the wall. Was this why he was needed in Wutai? Was this the extent to which Sephiroth was capable of? Harsh, bloody, murder. Callous, uncaring, cruel carnage? Unsympathetic butchery of innocent people. He was losing his bottle.

It was the exact thing he did. But...he'd never been on the receiving side. It had been easy for him to believe it was the right thing. Just do it. Don't think.

He was thinking now and it wasn't going away.

He knew how he was going to make Sephiroth hurt.

"Hold on Cloud. I'm going to get you out of here."

Suddenly the job didn't seem so important anymore.


End file.
